Mobile users: please report any problems. The slang term connects the McMansion style to upper-middle-class homeowners. A McMansion is a pejorative term for a certain type of ubiquitous supersized suburban American home that people love to hate. The only type of house those greedy developers seem to build in this metropolitan area is the mcmansion. Last edited on Feb 23 2000. [citation needed], Efforts to economize may have led to a decline in quality for many of these new houses, prompting the coinage of the disparaging term. McMansion Definition & Meaning | YourDictionary Urban Dictionary (Official) - Apps on Google Play It's important to distinguish McMansions from real mansions or other opulent homes, though large, have actually been made well and with architectural insight, not just to show off. A large starter home built with synthetic materials and has noticeable arches located at the patio/entry that resemble the McDonald's arch . Emily Estep is a plant biologist and journalist who has worked for a variety of online news and media outlets, writing about and editing topics including environmental science and houseplants. These areas may be in demand by buyers who desire a bigger house than the tract house, but are unwilling to pay for (or lack the means to afford) houses in the city's traditional upscale neighborhoods. especially in the United Stateshome to the Big Mac, the Hummer, and the, The family hopes to replace them with two two-bedroom, two-bathroom duplexes of 1,300 square feet in compliance with the, And yet, there are things that will never grace the doors of the Stately McSuderman, Norris Burkes: Move brings peaceful change, Is Del Mar's design review ordinance a good safeguard against , In the years leading up to the housing boom/bust, , Rehoboth cinches large homes with tightened zoning law, The planned home would look modest "it's not a, Move 'across the tracks' brings peaceful change, Outdoors: Invisible fence all that separates cyclists, dogs, The two huge dogs come streaking down the front lawn of the suburban. Forum discussions with the word(s) "McMansion" in the title: In other languages: Spanish | French | Italian | Portuguese | Romanian | German | Dutch | Swedish | Russian | Polish | Czech | Greek | Turkish | Chinese | Japanese | Korean | Arabic. Another added expense is the need to commutefrom the remote, suburban location of the McMansion to a city center. [14], In a development that runs counter to the previous boom in construction of McMansions, a 2009 report suggested that the Great Recession (20082012) has stabilized new house sizes in the United States. [citation needed]). McMansion. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/McMansion. The large home size is meant to signify the owner's high social and economic standing. Previously, he was a senior designer for DPZ CoDesign. McMansion definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary Postsript: A search for the term "McMain Street" turned up a similar definition in the Urban Dictionary as follows: "A new centrally planned . Urban Dictionary is the online dictionary with definitions written by everyone. By Christopher B.. + Add a definition for this slang term Related words Slang terms with the same meaning New York, Paris, and London are full of handsome buildings that extend the full length of the block. In addition, the land that McMansions are built on is often zoned as agricultural or re-zoned to residential from agricultural, and often outside of the city proper limits, as both of these result in lower property taxes. A McMain Street example, left, compares to a real Main Street. ", Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Interiors; Getting Smart About Art of Living Small", "Close to Home; Life in a Crater Will Do, For Now", "McMansions: Super-sized homes cause a super-sized backlash", Environmental Design Research Association, "Americans could be killing the McMansion for good", "Homes Keep Getting Bigger, Even as Families Get Smaller", "Millennials are ditching the cookie-cutter McMansion for the 'McModern', "Big homes on small lots crowd Kirkland neighbors", "Why do cookie-cutter neighborhoods exist? [1], An example of a McWord, "McMansion" associates the generic quality of these luxury houses with that of mass-produced fast food by evoking McDonald's, an American restaurant chain.[2]. The definition of McMansion in the dictionary is a large modern house considered to look mass-produced, lacking in distinguishing characteristics, and at variance with established local architecture. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Add McMansion to one of your lists below, or create a new one. This concept shifted to encapsulate the desire to own a home as a statement of prosperity. But their prevalence seemed inevitably to raise the bar on what was acceptable and desirable housing for a middle-class family and to raise the stakes on what it meant to keep up with the Joneses. But, as the. It's fast food in house form. But there is another building type that has proliferated in more urban sites, which in many ways reflects the same questionable goalattempting to create complexity at the architectural scale in absence of complexity or context at the urban scale. Those who can afford luxury have always been attracted to it and, if history offers any indication of the future, beautiful homes in ideal locations are always going to attract buyers. Bland, tasteless and generic - much like the food served at McDonalds. To save this word, you'll need to log in. Therefore, some variation in the faade treatments may be desired. McMansion: A Closer Look at the Big House Trend, Financial Considerations of Buying a Tiny House, Swimming Pools: Costs vs. In 2006, for example, a recently built house in Kirkland, Washington an affluent suburb on Seattle's Eastside stood so close to an adjoining property that, in the words of the chair of the city's Neighborhood Association, "you can read the lettering on the canned vegetables in the house next door. [1]Notes on 19thCentury Lot Sizes by Richard Howe, appearing in the blog Gotham, 09/15/2012, Public Square: A CNU Journal But help costs money. Wall Street is in lower Manhattan and is home to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Synonyms for MCMANSION: mansion, homestead, manse, manor, chteau, estate, villa, farmhouse, castle, parsonage Choosing Urban Dictionary's Word of the Day. One real-estate writer explains a successful formula typically found in McMansions: "symmetrical structures on clear-cut lots with Palladian windows centered over the main entry, and brick or stone enhancing the driveway entrance, plus multiple chimneys, dormers, pilasters, and columnsand inside, the master suite with dressing rooms and bath-spa, great rooms, breakfast and dining rooms, showplace kitchen, and extra high and wide garages for multiple cars and SUVs."[11]. Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and former senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia. Perform unlimited searches for. More examples The museum is gone now, and a McMansion will be erected in its place. Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1990. Three fundamental errors in architectural thinking and how to fix them. Cookie-cutter designs, tiny lawns, closely-packed neighbors, and garish designs that feature multiple garages nearly as big as the homes (earning these dwellings the nickname "Garage Mahals") are all common features of the suburban McMansion. McMansion: A slang term that describes a large, opulent house that may be generic in style and represents a good value for a homebuyer in terms of its size. Send us feedback about these examples. [13], Beginning in California in the 1980s,[11] the larger home concept was intended to fill a gap between the more modest suburban tract housing and the upscale, often custom, houses found in gated, waterfront, or golf course communities. Very similar in behavior to trailer trash.An individual with the outside appearance of successful living (i.e. Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. It would be better to focus design and construction budgets on better quality detailing and less on the number of faade modules that can incorporated into one blockface. "[21], McMansions often haphazardly mix a variety of conflicting architectural styles and elements, combining quoins, steeply sloped roofs, multiple roof lines, complicated massing, and pronounced dormers, to produce an appearance that many[who?] These houses also typically have 3,000 square feet (280m2) or more of floor area,[12] ceilings 9 to 10 feet (2.5 to 3m) high or higher, a two-story portico, a two-story front door hall (often containing a large chandelier), a garage with room for three or more cars, many bedrooms (with some having five or more), many bathrooms, extensive crown molding and related features, and lavishif superficialinterior features. Like the McMansion, the McMain Street attempts to mimic the complex roof massing of many buildings in a single building. $32.95. Learn a new word every day. McMansion uk / mkmn.n/ How to pronounce McMansion noun in British English us / mkmn.n/ How to pronounce McMansion noun in American English (English pronunciations of McMansion from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus and from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary, both sources Cambridge University Press) The appearance of McMansions began in the 1980s and continued through the 2000s up until the financial crisis. DICTIONARY ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD MCMANSION A corruption of McDonald's, a major American fast-food enterprise noted for the ubiquity of its restaurants. [1] Get daily tips & tricks to help make your best home, Everything to Know About the Edwardian House Style, sustainable and regenerative architecture, Oversized, mass-produced homes usually of at least 3,000 square feet and up that are developer-driven rather than architect-driven, Despite their desire to look opulent, they often are cheaply made, with low-quality materials, Jam-packed with random interior features that often result in odd layouts and incongruous exteriors, Many McMansions are Neo-eclectic in style, connoting a mishmash of sometimes unrelated architectural styles lacking in coherence and integritythe result of the absence of an architectural style, Windows, rooflines, and other details often clash, Towering ceilings, particularly in two-story entrance halls, often including giant chandeliers, Double-storied so-called great rooms with enormous windows and echoey acoustics, Often includes Palladian windows, multiple chimneys, discordant rooflines, and oversized columns, Multiple garages with room for four or more cars, Multiple bathrooms and/or en suites with every bedroom. Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English, British and American pronunciations with audio. [19] The houses themselves feature architectural preferences in general accordance with the neighborhood. Many states have antipredatory lending laws. The builder may have attempted expensive effects with cheap materials, skimped on details, or hidden defects with cladding: Though construction quality may be subpar and materials shoddy (from faux stucco to styrofoam crown molding and travertine compounded from epoxied marble dust), McMansion buyers are eager; the real-estate writer locates them in the generation of my angst-ridden Boston University students: "mostly young, mobile, career-oriented, high-salaried 30- and 40-something individuals" who are too time-squeezed to hire an architect but seek "a luxury home" that they might soon (and easily) sell whenever "it's time to move on. Kristin Hohenadel has written on design for publications including the New York Times, Interior Design, Slate, Fast Company, and the international editions of Elle Decor. Early McMansions were often Frankensteins monsterstyle riffs of classic architectural styles such as Georgian and Mediterranean. Moving Up: Dream House or Money Pit? - Investopedia A giant, ugly immitation-mansion house. Managing your email preferences. McMansion | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary Presents an anthology of chilling stories, each set in Orange County, California, featuring contributions by such noted mystery writers as Susan Straight, Dick Lochte, Mary Castillo, and Lawrence Maddox. The Online Slang Dictionary | Urban Thesaurus Built to provide a luxurious housing experience that was previously only available to high-net-worth individuals, a McMansion is often considered a status symbol. No, wait, it doesn't deserve to be called a house. McMansions were initially built as statement pieces rather than practical places to live. Now in its 20th year, it. consider unpleasant, jumbled, or messy.[9]. McMansion Definition & Example | InvestingAnswers O. J. Mayo's River Hills McMansion - Urban Milwaukee The facades lack the variety in design and detail that occurs naturally over time when multiple architects and builders develop a streetscape, one building at a time.
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