Are “McMansions” forever?
June 21, 2023 4:51 AM Subscribe
I know that “McMansion” isn’t a real architectural style. I know that no developer or architect will call a house they’re building a McMansion. But I also know that when I see homes of a certain particular style (built in the last 10-15 years, huge with showy windows, a bit of a mishmash of architectural styles)… that’s just what a lot of people call them. And the term seems to have stuck - depending on whether you own one or not, while it’s usually derogatory, it can be used ironically, or playfully. So I’m wondering, 100-150 years from now (assuming we’re not underwater in a climate change hellscape where it doesn’t matter) and architectural trends change, will houses of that style be known as McMansion style homes, the way we designate Queen Anne’s and Cape Cods and Tudor designs? Or is there some Architectural history governing board who decides these things?
I’d place the start of this style a fair bit earlier and despite the sometimes poor construction quality I believe a lot of these buildings will in fact still be around in 100 years. There are lots of cities and towns with buildings from 1900-1930 which were built as cheap worker housing, warehouses, etc. and still are standing after all. It’s easy to think everyone did better in the past but in my career I’ve seen enough to know that isn’t always true. And survivorship bias means we are seeing a subset of those buildings as well.
As to the naming. Perhaps it will stick. I’d like to think so. Or maybe it will be neutralized into something like American Millennial Suburbsn.
posted by meinvt at 5:40 AM on June 21, 2023 [11 favorites]
As to the naming. Perhaps it will stick. I’d like to think so. Or maybe it will be neutralized into something like American Millennial Suburbsn.
posted by meinvt at 5:40 AM on June 21, 2023 [11 favorites]
Yeah, lots of them will still be around in 100 years, they are built like every other modern structure here and will last as long as the roof and exterior are maintained. And like just about every architectural style ever, once they are around long enough then there will be appreciation of the style, but it takes a long time to get there.
The rule of thumb I was told for historical preservation is that pretty much no one is a champion for buildings under 30-40 years old -- they are too new to be "old" and too old to be "new", and therefor are not beloved. So that's the period when it is really hard for preservationists to keep buildings from being knocked down. Once you get past 40-ish years old, then people start appreciating the style and it is easier for the preservationists to keep buildings intact. So that's why for the past couple of decades, there has been increasing appreciation and acknowledgment of brutalist architecture, but previously there was a long period where it was hard to find defenders of that style. And in terms of US vernacular architecture, mid-century modern has come back into favor, but those 1980s split-levels still aren't feeling any love.
Just as a guess, I'd say we are still a decade or two from this point, maybe longer, with the "McMansion" style.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:51 AM on June 21, 2023 [9 favorites]
The rule of thumb I was told for historical preservation is that pretty much no one is a champion for buildings under 30-40 years old -- they are too new to be "old" and too old to be "new", and therefor are not beloved. So that's the period when it is really hard for preservationists to keep buildings from being knocked down. Once you get past 40-ish years old, then people start appreciating the style and it is easier for the preservationists to keep buildings intact. So that's why for the past couple of decades, there has been increasing appreciation and acknowledgment of brutalist architecture, but previously there was a long period where it was hard to find defenders of that style. And in terms of US vernacular architecture, mid-century modern has come back into favor, but those 1980s split-levels still aren't feeling any love.
Just as a guess, I'd say we are still a decade or two from this point, maybe longer, with the "McMansion" style.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:51 AM on June 21, 2023 [9 favorites]
Response by poster: Just to clarify - I’m asking from a linguistic rather than an architectural standpoint. Presumably Queen Anne didn’t tell people to name that house style after her. People aren’t really building Queen Anne houses now. But somewhere along the line someone decided that’s what that style of house design was called. Are enough people colloquially calling them McMansions enough to make the term stick, or does someone else more Official necessarily have the last word?
posted by Mchelly at 5:54 AM on June 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 5:54 AM on June 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is a good essay that covers the style/typology of the McMansion and might answer your question (from the author of, appropriately, McMansion Hell.)
posted by restless_nomad at 6:00 AM on June 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by restless_nomad at 6:00 AM on June 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
There is no official naming body, this will be an organic linguistic process and we don't have a crystal ball.
I understand your question is linguistic, but I think phhunimee's point stands, that if they crumble in the next 50-100 years, there will be much less reason to talk about them in the future, so the name may dwindle too.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:00 AM on June 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
I understand your question is linguistic, but I think phhunimee's point stands, that if they crumble in the next 50-100 years, there will be much less reason to talk about them in the future, so the name may dwindle too.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:00 AM on June 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
Mostly a guess, I'm no historian of architecture or anything like that, but I have a feeling that McMansion-the-term will survive in two different ways--not so much as a description of a particular style of architecture but more like what phunniemee talks about, a particular style of suburban/exurban land development.
Once a few McMansions start to crumble, if there's no demand creating finding to rebuild, the property values for the whole development will drop and die off and be susceptible to becoming a ghost town.
This is not uncommon where I live, especially in subdivisions built around golf courses. Too many vacant houses and owners renting their houses, often to tenants who can't afford or aren't interested in club fees, lead to the golf club being unable to sustain itself financially, and then the golf course becomes e.g. a park with walking trails, or a disc golf course (inside city limits), or, outside the city limits, a place people ride side-by-sides and dirt bikes.
The second way that 'McMansion' will survive is as a term to refer to houses in historic neighborhoods whose owners knocked down an old house and built a new one. This usage has a major negative connotation with a serious nouveau-riche/not-our-kind subtext to it.
posted by box at 6:00 AM on June 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
Once a few McMansions start to crumble, if there's no demand creating finding to rebuild, the property values for the whole development will drop and die off and be susceptible to becoming a ghost town.
This is not uncommon where I live, especially in subdivisions built around golf courses. Too many vacant houses and owners renting their houses, often to tenants who can't afford or aren't interested in club fees, lead to the golf club being unable to sustain itself financially, and then the golf course becomes e.g. a park with walking trails, or a disc golf course (inside city limits), or, outside the city limits, a place people ride side-by-sides and dirt bikes.
The second way that 'McMansion' will survive is as a term to refer to houses in historic neighborhoods whose owners knocked down an old house and built a new one. This usage has a major negative connotation with a serious nouveau-riche/not-our-kind subtext to it.
posted by box at 6:00 AM on June 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
One of the hallmarks of McMansions is their cheap, shitty construction. Another is that they tend to be crammed together in suburban developments built expressly for the purpose of selling McMansions.
People said that about bungalows and they are still around 100 years later, with some of them selling for millions of dollars.
I think they'll still be called McMansions. That term has been around since at least the 90s, a term my relatives would mutter angrily as they drove past the new houses that were built to the edge of the lots and then later expanded to include the new neighbourhood built over the latest wildfire burn.
In around 30 years, people will be boring their friends with stories about renovating and caring for their vintage McMansion, and the term will be used affectionately. There's no official League of Architecture Words, so the word that will be used is the word that is commonly used.
posted by betweenthebars at 6:15 AM on June 21, 2023 [9 favorites]
People said that about bungalows and they are still around 100 years later, with some of them selling for millions of dollars.
I think they'll still be called McMansions. That term has been around since at least the 90s, a term my relatives would mutter angrily as they drove past the new houses that were built to the edge of the lots and then later expanded to include the new neighbourhood built over the latest wildfire burn.
In around 30 years, people will be boring their friends with stories about renovating and caring for their vintage McMansion, and the term will be used affectionately. There's no official League of Architecture Words, so the word that will be used is the word that is commonly used.
posted by betweenthebars at 6:15 AM on June 21, 2023 [9 favorites]
The term "googie architecture" was originally intended as disparaging, but has become widely adopted and even beloved. See also "shotgun house". There's no reason to think the same thing won't happen to McMansions. The thing about architectural naming is that it arises from architecture criticism. The aforementioned "googie" came from a single magazine article. By contrast, "McMansion" has been in common use for over a quarter century at this point, including by prominent architectural critics like Wytold Rybinski and Paul Goldberger. Kate Wagner has been writing her blog for seven years. "McMansion" is as well established as any term in contemporary architecture.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:18 AM on June 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by kevinbelt at 6:18 AM on June 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
My guess would be that it's common enough that even if there existed some trend or edict from on high to use another term, you'd still see things like "Millennial Suburban (colloquially known at the time as 'McMansions' in an apparent reference to a nationwide restaurant chain offering mass-produced and famously unnourishing 'fast food'; the chain was also known for a somewhat garish visual aesthetic)".
The nickname is catchy enough that it probably has a fair amount of staying power, and at least in my own experience it's pretty widespread. On the other hand it's also derogatory and potentially offensive, so there might be some tensions along class or political lines that would make real estate agents today, and possibly architects in the future, prefer to find some other way of referring to the style if it's one they're working in or trying to sell. If enough of them start converging on the same term, then that might end up being what you see in a lot of publications and take on a more "official" color, even if there's no actual official instruction from anybody on the subject.
Also, even if the buildings stick around long enough that they're relevant not only to future scholars of architecture but also to future real estate agents, it's still not impossible that McDonald's will no longer be around, or have the same connotations to a younger crowd. Or that it'll one day feel too old-fashioned, or too jokey to be appropriate when referring to something that's reached a venerable age and that many people grew up in. Or that nostalgia and changing standards will do their part and the name will no longer seem relevant, and a more neutral or differently descriptive term would take its place. Or maybe the nostalgic fondness would extend to the nickname too.
In short: who knows!
posted by trig at 6:20 AM on June 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
The nickname is catchy enough that it probably has a fair amount of staying power, and at least in my own experience it's pretty widespread. On the other hand it's also derogatory and potentially offensive, so there might be some tensions along class or political lines that would make real estate agents today, and possibly architects in the future, prefer to find some other way of referring to the style if it's one they're working in or trying to sell. If enough of them start converging on the same term, then that might end up being what you see in a lot of publications and take on a more "official" color, even if there's no actual official instruction from anybody on the subject.
Also, even if the buildings stick around long enough that they're relevant not only to future scholars of architecture but also to future real estate agents, it's still not impossible that McDonald's will no longer be around, or have the same connotations to a younger crowd. Or that it'll one day feel too old-fashioned, or too jokey to be appropriate when referring to something that's reached a venerable age and that many people grew up in. Or that nostalgia and changing standards will do their part and the name will no longer seem relevant, and a more neutral or differently descriptive term would take its place. Or maybe the nostalgic fondness would extend to the nickname too.
In short: who knows!
posted by trig at 6:20 AM on June 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
Similarly, rather than being built along city streets or around town centers which tend to stick around, I also don't see the massive all-McMansion sub divisions set far off the arterial path sticking around either.
As noted above this is not exactly true. The urban mcmansion is absolutely a thing; I'm looking at one outside my partner's window right now. These are a little different in scale from the suburban ones and there are probably some style differences as well, but they share many of the same fixtures. My current home is in a building that folks likely thought was a hideous oversize nouveau riche monstrosity when it was plunked down on a rather rustic block 100 years ago--so I see no especial reason why these new ones would not also be around and quite normalized in 100 years.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:41 AM on June 21, 2023 [6 favorites]
As noted above this is not exactly true. The urban mcmansion is absolutely a thing; I'm looking at one outside my partner's window right now. These are a little different in scale from the suburban ones and there are probably some style differences as well, but they share many of the same fixtures. My current home is in a building that folks likely thought was a hideous oversize nouveau riche monstrosity when it was plunked down on a rather rustic block 100 years ago--so I see no especial reason why these new ones would not also be around and quite normalized in 100 years.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:41 AM on June 21, 2023 [6 favorites]
Well, "there is no cabal", but there kind of is a cabal. There's no ISO-style organization that determines what things are called, but there are people who seriously study and write about architectural history and departments of architectural history at a few universities, along with theorists and critics that publish on a regular basis. Eventually they might land on a term that isn't being used yet but encompasses some other trappings of the McMansion phenomenon that we haven't seen yet and view it all as part of the same trend.
Also, I'm not sure we have a consensus on what "McMansion" actually means right now? And is it more of an architectural style, or is it more of a development trend that comes from builders trying to maximize their return on their building investment by including faux-ish "fancy" elements to make their tract home seem "nicer"? Personally, I think of a McMansion as being kind of a clumsily-designed house that has a few features that signify a "higher" level of design without actually having that higher level of design, like the big two-story portico out front, the two-story "lawyer foyer" once you get inside, the two-story high living room with a giant arched window facing the front of the house, and a bunch of pointless front-facing roof gables intended to add drama to the roofline that don't serve any actual purpose - those kinds of things can be adapted to any architectural style in a fake kind of way because they're kind of fake to begin with. I've seen similar features in actual mansions located in wealthy areas where the owner seemed to just want something that looked expensive or impressive, and I would kind of call those places McMansions despite probably having a pretty high quality of construction and finish level.
posted by LionIndex at 6:48 AM on June 21, 2023 [6 favorites]
Also, I'm not sure we have a consensus on what "McMansion" actually means right now? And is it more of an architectural style, or is it more of a development trend that comes from builders trying to maximize their return on their building investment by including faux-ish "fancy" elements to make their tract home seem "nicer"? Personally, I think of a McMansion as being kind of a clumsily-designed house that has a few features that signify a "higher" level of design without actually having that higher level of design, like the big two-story portico out front, the two-story "lawyer foyer" once you get inside, the two-story high living room with a giant arched window facing the front of the house, and a bunch of pointless front-facing roof gables intended to add drama to the roofline that don't serve any actual purpose - those kinds of things can be adapted to any architectural style in a fake kind of way because they're kind of fake to begin with. I've seen similar features in actual mansions located in wealthy areas where the owner seemed to just want something that looked expensive or impressive, and I would kind of call those places McMansions despite probably having a pretty high quality of construction and finish level.
posted by LionIndex at 6:48 AM on June 21, 2023 [6 favorites]
Linguistically, the term "McMansion" will stick around at some level, simply because it is descriptive and widely understood. But it is a deliberately disparaging term, so it isn't ever going to be used by real estate agents or developers, or likely by the people who will come to appreciate the style. So there is a built-in limit to the term's use, versus a neutral term like "bungalow" or "mid-century modern.".
posted by Dip Flash at 7:06 AM on June 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Dip Flash at 7:06 AM on June 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
People like Kate Wagner have no idea how houses are constructed - she's complaining about the style - her concerns about construction quality are far more just opinions than actual facts. The exterior materials homes are made of now are much higher quality than anything from the past.
Also the oldest mcmansions (the before series in her own article sets) are touching 50+ years old and holding their value fine. My house is 53 years old (not a mcmansion) and was built with drywall exterior walls- there was no 'magic period' where houses were built with timeless indestructible materials.
Sure, cities rise and fall (St Louis used to be one of the largest cities in the west at close to 1m in population, and now it has 293,000), so mcmansions will ride the tide with that. But in cities where the population is stable - they will be fine.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:18 AM on June 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
Also the oldest mcmansions (the before series in her own article sets) are touching 50+ years old and holding their value fine. My house is 53 years old (not a mcmansion) and was built with drywall exterior walls- there was no 'magic period' where houses were built with timeless indestructible materials.
Sure, cities rise and fall (St Louis used to be one of the largest cities in the west at close to 1m in population, and now it has 293,000), so mcmansions will ride the tide with that. But in cities where the population is stable - they will be fine.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:18 AM on June 21, 2023 [5 favorites]
Based on my years of watching real estate listing, agents will persist in calling absolutely every house either a “Craftsman” or a “ranch”, whether or not the house has any features one might expect to find in those styles.
McMansion has already drifted a bit in meaning, so I think it will stick around to mean “any house I don’t like.” Academics will have to come up with another term to describe overlarge, contractor-designed houses. Maybe “vinyl-window vernacular”?
posted by Just the one swan, actually at 7:40 AM on June 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
McMansion has already drifted a bit in meaning, so I think it will stick around to mean “any house I don’t like.” Academics will have to come up with another term to describe overlarge, contractor-designed houses. Maybe “vinyl-window vernacular”?
posted by Just the one swan, actually at 7:40 AM on June 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
My educated guess is that the term McMansion will still be around in 100 years. BUT, I also feel people (professionals and lay people alike) are not really aware of how huge the changes we are about to experience will be. Quite a lot of the McMansions are built in unsustainable areas, that will either be flooded or uninhabitable because of lack of water. This will mean that the term, McMansion, will carry wholly different connotations already twenty years from now.
posted by mumimor at 7:46 AM on June 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by mumimor at 7:46 AM on June 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
The reason terms get used to describe styles of things is if they're meaningful and descriptive to people; there's no official guide to styles. Although occasionally things get codified in standards, building codes, zoning laws, etc. -- although those tend to be functional rather than aesthetic classifications. And those codifications don't always keep their meaning; if I check Statistics Canada or my city's zoning bylaw, a "duplex" is a building with residences one on top of another, but if I check with a random person, a builder or a realtor, a "duplex" is a house-like building divided in half with two residences side-by-side. I think there's some reasons to think the term will still be in reasonably general use 100 years from now, and some reasons against:
Pro:
1). McMansion is widely known already, is used both popularly and by critics.
2). There's a commonality to McMansions in terms of their size as well as their development pattern.
Cons:
1). The term describes houses on a relative basis; it is possible that the mass-affluent will eventually start building even bigger houses that ultimately make the term kind of overbroad or meaningless. "Skyscraper" used to mean a 10 story building; there are places in Toronto where a 10 story building would be classed as a "mid-rise" today.
2). It doesn't really describe a specific style so much as a scale and a cobbling-together of styles; I could ask three architects to sketch a shotgun or Victorian or Queenslander house and would get more similar results than if I asked them to sketch a McMansion.
3). It's pejorative; a lot of people who talk about houses are people who build them, sell them, etc., and if they don't use a term, then that reduces the number of people who are using a term.
posted by Superilla at 8:27 AM on June 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
Pro:
1). McMansion is widely known already, is used both popularly and by critics.
2). There's a commonality to McMansions in terms of their size as well as their development pattern.
Cons:
1). The term describes houses on a relative basis; it is possible that the mass-affluent will eventually start building even bigger houses that ultimately make the term kind of overbroad or meaningless. "Skyscraper" used to mean a 10 story building; there are places in Toronto where a 10 story building would be classed as a "mid-rise" today.
2). It doesn't really describe a specific style so much as a scale and a cobbling-together of styles; I could ask three architects to sketch a shotgun or Victorian or Queenslander house and would get more similar results than if I asked them to sketch a McMansion.
3). It's pejorative; a lot of people who talk about houses are people who build them, sell them, etc., and if they don't use a term, then that reduces the number of people who are using a term.
posted by Superilla at 8:27 AM on June 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
People said that about bungalows and they are still around 100 years later
Yes, I was to comment that your hypothetical has already happened in Los Angeles, and your "ghost towns" are actually full of properties going for $2M+.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 8:29 AM on June 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yes, I was to comment that your hypothetical has already happened in Los Angeles, and your "ghost towns" are actually full of properties going for $2M+.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 8:29 AM on June 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
pointless front-facing roof gables intended to add drama to the roofline that don't serve any actual purpose
In at least some suburbs the roof gables are a workaround for local restrictions on mean roof height as visible from the street. You can build a taller section (or multiple taller sections) of a big house as long as the other sections of the house bring the mean height down. I think the visual style became self-perpetuating even outside the neighborhoods where it was kind of a necessary distraction ("pay no attention to this tall part here") but it did originally serve a purpose.
As for terminology, I think two things will happen:
McMansion will continue to be used to describe houses that at the time they were built were larger than average for their lot size and/or closer together* than was previously the norm in their communities, regardless of style. I'm not sure McMansions overall were any more or less cheaply built than the 70s tract houses that preceded them in my hometown, and those 70s tract houses are pretty much all still standing, so I don't expect McMansions from the late 80s and up to degrade any more quickly than they did. I think there will be enough of them that the term describing them will stick around.
I also expect that, with the benefit of time, architecture critics will come up with more specific aesthetic terms to describe the common characteristics of the era. I don't pay too much attention to the aesthetics of McMansions, but I wouldn't be surprised if critics started naming regional variations either. For example the DC area has a lot of pseudo-colonial McMansions that might be a regional specialty compared to, say, Atlanta or Dallas. And Atlanta or Dallas might have more … whatever they have. I don't have a clue what the terms will be, though. Maybe they'll just adopt some terms from McMansion Hell, but maybe they will insist on coming up with their own.
* A high school friend came home from college one summer to find that there was a whole new house next door. "We can watch their TV from our kitchen," she said. That didn't happen with the much lower lot occupancy in my own family's neighborhood a mile away. That's my own cultural touchstone for when McMansions really started to happen.
posted by fedward at 9:47 AM on June 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
In at least some suburbs the roof gables are a workaround for local restrictions on mean roof height as visible from the street. You can build a taller section (or multiple taller sections) of a big house as long as the other sections of the house bring the mean height down. I think the visual style became self-perpetuating even outside the neighborhoods where it was kind of a necessary distraction ("pay no attention to this tall part here") but it did originally serve a purpose.
As for terminology, I think two things will happen:
McMansion will continue to be used to describe houses that at the time they were built were larger than average for their lot size and/or closer together* than was previously the norm in their communities, regardless of style. I'm not sure McMansions overall were any more or less cheaply built than the 70s tract houses that preceded them in my hometown, and those 70s tract houses are pretty much all still standing, so I don't expect McMansions from the late 80s and up to degrade any more quickly than they did. I think there will be enough of them that the term describing them will stick around.
I also expect that, with the benefit of time, architecture critics will come up with more specific aesthetic terms to describe the common characteristics of the era. I don't pay too much attention to the aesthetics of McMansions, but I wouldn't be surprised if critics started naming regional variations either. For example the DC area has a lot of pseudo-colonial McMansions that might be a regional specialty compared to, say, Atlanta or Dallas. And Atlanta or Dallas might have more … whatever they have. I don't have a clue what the terms will be, though. Maybe they'll just adopt some terms from McMansion Hell, but maybe they will insist on coming up with their own.
* A high school friend came home from college one summer to find that there was a whole new house next door. "We can watch their TV from our kitchen," she said. That didn't happen with the much lower lot occupancy in my own family's neighborhood a mile away. That's my own cultural touchstone for when McMansions really started to happen.
posted by fedward at 9:47 AM on June 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
In at least some suburbs the roof gables are a workaround for local restrictions on mean roof height as visible from the street.
Right, not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about little bumpouts below the main roofline that don't really do anything besides add drama to the facade of the building and break up the eave line. See this place in Scottsdale - there's the portico that's tall just to be tall, framed by a bay window on one side and a bumpout on the other where they framed out an extra little roof just to make the wall thicker - the window is in the same plane as the rest of the wall. You see that kind of thing a lot - like a dormer but not really because dormers are kind of expensive in comparison. This is in a wealthy neighborhood full of custom homes, but is the kind of thing I'd call a McMansion.
posted by LionIndex at 10:09 AM on June 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Right, not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about little bumpouts below the main roofline that don't really do anything besides add drama to the facade of the building and break up the eave line. See this place in Scottsdale - there's the portico that's tall just to be tall, framed by a bay window on one side and a bumpout on the other where they framed out an extra little roof just to make the wall thicker - the window is in the same plane as the rest of the wall. You see that kind of thing a lot - like a dormer but not really because dormers are kind of expensive in comparison. This is in a wealthy neighborhood full of custom homes, but is the kind of thing I'd call a McMansion.
posted by LionIndex at 10:09 AM on June 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is why I don't pay attention to McMansions. Somebody was like "oh, it needs visual weight to balance the bay window" but oh my god the mismatched roofline and the pointless columns on the portico (what style even are those) and the weird angle of the garage and [breaks out into a cold sweat]
posted by fedward at 10:18 AM on June 21, 2023
posted by fedward at 10:18 AM on June 21, 2023
Best answer: Hello! Professional architectural historian checking in here.
Obviously, we can't really know what terminology future historians will use, and there is no body that officially determines terminology. I researched the history of a large Brutalist structure (you'd all know it instantly) in Washington DC. It took so long to build that when it was first proposed, the architectural critics had no term to describe it. By the time it was completed, the consensus had resolved around Brutalist.
Classifying an architectural style is tricky, particularly when it is relatively new. The point Dip Flash made above about it being hard to appreciate a style in the 30-40 year range is pertinent. At some point, what was new and stylish becomes tired and old fashioned before it becomes retro and cool. In our profession, there is a specific policy called the "50 year rule" in that a resource can't ordinarily be deemed historic before 50 years of age because we need some objective distance in time before we can assess significance (there are exceptions and a process for determining "exceptional significance" for properties under 50 years old).
Architectural historians will try to name, define, and describe current styles over time, but whether the terminology is widely accepted in the profession will depend on whether it is picked up by leading institutions such as the National Park Service and individual State Historic Preservation Offices. The reference work very often used as an architectural guide is Viginia McAlester's "Field Guide to American Houses" - the bible since I was in grad school 20 years ago and updated and expanded in 2013. McAlester calls these "Millenium Mansions" and states that it
"...is the predominant style in many large subdivisions built from the late 1980s up to the present. They can be built on higher-priced land because their vertical massing allows far more square feet per lot...This penchant for size, particularly when interspersed amid small, earlier neighboring houses - or scattered on super-large far-flung rural lots - led to the nickname 'McMansion', initially used for Millenium Mansions but now referring to any new house style deemed to be either oversized in comparison with adjacent homes or disjointed in style."
I've seen the term Millenium Mansion used in professional writing, but one reviewer here in Michigan *hated* the term. Time will tell if it sticks.
I'm also old enough in the profession that I've seen the rise in appreciation of Mid-Century Modern styles and we struggled (and still sometimes do) to define terminology because so many elements of the style were new and existing terminology didn't cover it. Roof forms are particularly entertaining for those styles - butterfly, folded plate, and my personal favorite, the "wounded dove" (a front gabled roof with one side longer than the other, as if a dove was holding out its wounded wing). Right now we are starting to grapple with Post-Modern for the same reason.
If I had to guess based on my experience, professionals will not use the term "McMansion" because it does not describe a particular style or house form with specific attributes (roof form, footprint, porch styles, decoration) but rather a house's size and relation to its setting. So it could be used very similarly to the way "Victorian" is used today. There is no "Victorian" style but a myriad of styles that fit under that umbrella based on their period and the approach to architectural design during that period.
I could write another 20 paragraphs on whether or not they are good designs that will stand the test of time, but maybe some other post...
posted by Preserver at 10:20 AM on June 21, 2023 [59 favorites]
Obviously, we can't really know what terminology future historians will use, and there is no body that officially determines terminology. I researched the history of a large Brutalist structure (you'd all know it instantly) in Washington DC. It took so long to build that when it was first proposed, the architectural critics had no term to describe it. By the time it was completed, the consensus had resolved around Brutalist.
Classifying an architectural style is tricky, particularly when it is relatively new. The point Dip Flash made above about it being hard to appreciate a style in the 30-40 year range is pertinent. At some point, what was new and stylish becomes tired and old fashioned before it becomes retro and cool. In our profession, there is a specific policy called the "50 year rule" in that a resource can't ordinarily be deemed historic before 50 years of age because we need some objective distance in time before we can assess significance (there are exceptions and a process for determining "exceptional significance" for properties under 50 years old).
Architectural historians will try to name, define, and describe current styles over time, but whether the terminology is widely accepted in the profession will depend on whether it is picked up by leading institutions such as the National Park Service and individual State Historic Preservation Offices. The reference work very often used as an architectural guide is Viginia McAlester's "Field Guide to American Houses" - the bible since I was in grad school 20 years ago and updated and expanded in 2013. McAlester calls these "Millenium Mansions" and states that it
"...is the predominant style in many large subdivisions built from the late 1980s up to the present. They can be built on higher-priced land because their vertical massing allows far more square feet per lot...This penchant for size, particularly when interspersed amid small, earlier neighboring houses - or scattered on super-large far-flung rural lots - led to the nickname 'McMansion', initially used for Millenium Mansions but now referring to any new house style deemed to be either oversized in comparison with adjacent homes or disjointed in style."
I've seen the term Millenium Mansion used in professional writing, but one reviewer here in Michigan *hated* the term. Time will tell if it sticks.
I'm also old enough in the profession that I've seen the rise in appreciation of Mid-Century Modern styles and we struggled (and still sometimes do) to define terminology because so many elements of the style were new and existing terminology didn't cover it. Roof forms are particularly entertaining for those styles - butterfly, folded plate, and my personal favorite, the "wounded dove" (a front gabled roof with one side longer than the other, as if a dove was holding out its wounded wing). Right now we are starting to grapple with Post-Modern for the same reason.
If I had to guess based on my experience, professionals will not use the term "McMansion" because it does not describe a particular style or house form with specific attributes (roof form, footprint, porch styles, decoration) but rather a house's size and relation to its setting. So it could be used very similarly to the way "Victorian" is used today. There is no "Victorian" style but a myriad of styles that fit under that umbrella based on their period and the approach to architectural design during that period.
I could write another 20 paragraphs on whether or not they are good designs that will stand the test of time, but maybe some other post...
posted by Preserver at 10:20 AM on June 21, 2023 [59 favorites]
The term neo-eclectic architecture is now commonly used to refer to the McMansion style, although it is a bit broader because it applies to buildings that are not houses. I suspect that term will be what academics will use. McMansion will continue to be used as slang, which is how scholars use the term now.
posted by mortaddams at 5:38 PM on June 21, 2023
posted by mortaddams at 5:38 PM on June 21, 2023
I think taxonomies can be divided into two categories: the professional as exemplified by Preserver, and the commercial as suggested by One Swan.
Here in CT, any house with two floors is likely to be called a colonial, no matter its other characteristics. I remember being shown a house described as being English Colonial which makes no sense at all.
There is a wounded dove up the street from us. The long side faces south, ideal for solar panels.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:24 AM on June 22, 2023
Here in CT, any house with two floors is likely to be called a colonial, no matter its other characteristics. I remember being shown a house described as being English Colonial which makes no sense at all.
There is a wounded dove up the street from us. The long side faces south, ideal for solar panels.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:24 AM on June 22, 2023
Mod note: [btw, this post and Preserver's comment have been added to the sidebar]
posted by taz (staff) at 7:44 AM on June 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by taz (staff) at 7:44 AM on June 24, 2023 [4 favorites]
Wow. I'm honored. :)
posted by Preserver at 8:03 PM on June 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Preserver at 8:03 PM on June 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
I acknowledge that Reddit is problematic, but there is a subreddit for McMansion Hell.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 5:57 AM on July 7, 2023
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 5:57 AM on July 7, 2023
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While there are still period Tudor, Cape Cod, and Queen Anne structures around today, I don't have a ton of faith that a McMansion is going to stand up to time. Similarly, rather than being built along city streets or around town centers which tend to stick around, I also don't see the massive all-McMansion sub divisions set far off the arterial path sticking around either. Once a few McMansions start to crumble, if there's no demand creating finding to rebuild, the property values for the whole development will drop and die off and be susceptible to becoming a ghost town.
I just don't think there's going to be much of a trend left to emulate in 100-150 years, regardless of what happens to the trends and tastes.
posted by phunniemee at 5:21 AM on June 21, 2023 [15 favorites]