What is a McMansion

The term McMansion is a negative word for an oversized suburban home that can easily be described as a caricature of a proper mansion. While they are large and may look impressive from afar they lack the qualities of the mansions that they draw inspiration from. They are built with production quantity on boring suburban lots with cheap materials, and they lack quality and character in their interior and exterior designs.

History

After World War II the United States began pursuing a policy of de densifying housing, this was achieved by use of single family zoning, the interstate highway system, and subsequent demolition of vast swathes of American cities to make way for parking and highways.

One result of this policy was the proliferation of the American suburb a now ubiquitous aspect of American culture characterized at the mid century by modest single story mid century modern and one and a half story cape cod homes. Fast forward a few decades to the 1980s and a gap appeared in the now cemented suburban landscape, there were monolithic blocks of tract homes, and upscale custom homes in gated communities. Builders saw an opportunity for a larger home in a conventional suburb that would fit this gap, and the result of filling this gap was the McMansion, born in 1980s suburban California.

These homes proved to be a success and demand grew dramatically. McMansions began cropping up across the United States throughout the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Often times modest homes in mature neighborhoods would be demolished to make way for these oversize homes which seemed to push at the lot lines. They were also built in new developments, with enormous lots, far away from cities and older suburbs and the amenities that they provide. The McMansion craze continued until the mortgage crisis of the late 2000s which put an enormous damper on McMansion construction, which has largely continued to this day only to be replaced by McModerns and McFarmhouses.

Defining Characteristics

• Oversized and Mass Produced

  Generally McMansions are greater than 3000 square feet, they are also often designed and built by builders rather than architects.

• Cheap Materials

  McMansions have a desire to look good, but lack the materials, its not uncommon to see a McMansion wearing an exterior of vinyl siding.

• Poorly executed architectural style

  McMansions will look similar to a certain architectural style, but they don't get it right. Often their proportions and balance will be off

• Clashing Forms

  Generally McMansions will have clashing forms, for example towers and turrets on an otherwise boxy home.

• Towering Interiors

  Two story foyers and great rooms clad with picture frame windows are a staple of the McMansion.

• Awkward Interior Space

  With all that interior space comes awkward use of it, usually rooms are too big for their intended use, but too small to be reconfigured into more useful and proportional space.

Criticisms

Despite their popularity for many decades McMansions have joined a list of disliked American architectural and development trends for many people and I am certainly one of them. First is that they are not human scale, these homes are huge and their huge size leaves them cold and uninviting. Second is that they are a crowning example of bad architecture, and bad craftsmanship, which stings even more knowing that if the budget for a McMansion was used for a more modest house, the work quality would have been much better. Third is that they generally don't fit the form of the neighborhood they are in, they are often significantly bigger that their surrounding homes. Fourth is that they are resource intensive, they require lots of material to build, and large amounts of energy to heat and cool, they are also often very far from work, school, and shopping and aren't on transit lines necessitating car ownership. McMansions may have some fans, but in this authors opinion I'm glad to see the craze die off.