McMansions are a staple of upper middle class suburbia. Notoriously built with a disregard for architectural consistency, the large houses have become the joke of the modern neighborhood.
Kate Wagner — the author of popular blog McMansion Hell — discussed their growing popularity at an event hosted by the NYU Urban Design and Architectural Society on Thursday.
“A McMansion is like obscenity; you know it when you see it,” Wagner said at the start of the event.
McMansion Hell was launched in July 2016 and has been featured in various publications like Paper Magazine and the Huffington Post. With images from real estate websites like Redfin, the blog alternates between humorous roasts of ostentatious mansions around the U.S. and informational essays about architecture, urbanism and design.
The blog started as a satire, but as it grew in popularity Wagner decided to use her platform to inform others on architecture and design in an attempt to make it a more accessible subject.
“My basic thesis is that there are sort of two definitions of a McMansion,” Wagner said at the event. “One is that it is a sort of common vernacular housing type that is a real architectural phenomenon. The other is that it is an aesthetic and cultural ideology.”
The basement of the Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life was packed with onlookers who came to see Wagner’s talk; overwhelming interest made a ticketing system necessary.
With their large builds and combinations of different architectural styles, McMansions can often be seen as a status symbol. The style was partly inspired by the split level style ranch homes glamorized in Hollywood and Beverly Hills in the 60s and 70s. It began to flourish in the 1980s.
“I usually give this panned definition, which is that [McMansions are] oversized,” Wagner said. “[They are] 1000 square feet above the national average, poorly designed and usually a mishmash of different architectural styles like gothic and Mediterranean and modern.”
Wagner also pointed out the wastefulness and lack of sustainability that come with McMansions, which she says have contributed to deforestation, erosion of greenbelt policies used to preserve undeveloped land and the overconsumption of energy. According to Wagner, McMansions are bad for the environment due to the inefficient processes used to make them as well as their short lifespan. Often structurally weak, they are not built to last.
UDAS Vice President and Gallatin junior Jonathan Marty weighed in on the comedy surrounding McMansions.
“I couldn’t articulate why it was so profoundly ridiculous,” Marty said. “Like people have giant Corinthian columns in their kitchens.”
Email Marie-Louise Onga Nana at [email protected].
