The term "McMansion" describes any spread out, land eating, mass produced house (AKA single family "home"), most likely made of brick and having a multi-layered roofline/frontage that faces the far away street. It is of the sort most common for the last two decades in the U.S.
They could be (and most often are it seems) only one to one and one half stories, but very rarely exceed 2 to 2 1/2 stories. They range in price from middle income to upper upper income (anything that's over 500K (in most of the interior southeast/midwest) should be designed by an architect anyway.
We can blame our upwardly mobile, disposable national culture, the housing bubble, and to some degree HGTV for perpetuting this phenomenon.
Other space eaters that contribute to suburban/metropolitan sprawl include the ranch house/rambler, the patio home
, and the "florida house."
With any luck, the oil crash will make livestock pens out of these architectural mistakes.
They could be (and most often are it seems) only one to one and one half stories, but very rarely exceed 2 to 2 1/2 stories. They range in price from middle income to upper upper income (anything that's over 500K (in most of the interior southeast/midwest) should be designed by an architect anyway.
We can blame our upwardly mobile, disposable national culture, the housing bubble, and to some degree HGTV for perpetuting this phenomenon.
Other space eaters that contribute to suburban/metropolitan sprawl include the ranch house/rambler, the patio home
, and the "florida house."
With any luck, the oil crash will make livestock pens out of these architectural mistakes.
The only type of house those greedy developers seem to build in this metropolitan area is the mcmansion.
The mcmansion seems to go hand in hand with the big box retailers
What was canopied country roads, split rail fences, primeval groves of trees, storied woods, charming old houses, and truck farms when I was a kid have been replaced by edge cities and all that come with them. Eg, multi-lane highways, plop-down architecture (anything that is very dulled down and closely related to the large motor vehicles that use them), and mcmansions
The mcmansion seems to go hand in hand with the big box retailers
What was canopied country roads, split rail fences, primeval groves of trees, storied woods, charming old houses, and truck farms when I was a kid have been replaced by edge cities and all that come with them. Eg, multi-lane highways, plop-down architecture (anything that is very dulled down and closely related to the large motor vehicles that use them), and mcmansions
by Miskatonic Jack July 1, 2006
Get the mcmansion mug.by ashley the pimp April 11, 2008
Get the mcmann mug.The housing developments (or clusters of developments) full of McMansions - the psuedo-stylish and usually over-sized and under-built homes. These are most commonly found in the outlying suburbs surrounding cities, but occasionally small McMansionvilles will appear inside a city.
That used to be all farmland there, but over the past couple years it's been turned into a McMansionville
by phxphun1 November 24, 2006
Get the McMansionville mug.A super cool comedian slash actor slash filmmaker slash author slash advice person slash time traueller. Author of the Will to Whatevs. A very funny man. Not to be confused with Demitri Martin.
by Sierraaaaaaaah April 10, 2009
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Who's our favorite flexible, flirty and funny lesbian? Comedian Bridget McManus, of course! The 28-year-old former All American cheerleader came to the attention of AfterEllen.com readers after a guest appearance on the vlog We're Getting Nowhere. You demanded more McManus, and the hit AfterEllen.com vlog Brunch With Bridget was born. Broadcasting each week from her bed in Los Angeles, the professionally random McManus talks to her female guests about a variety of topics and ends each episode by cajoling them into a "pillow fight to the death." She also made a memorable cameo as Rhonda the Rapid Delivery girl on the web series 3Way, and can be seen this summer in a very brief appearance in the Angelina Jolie blockbuster Wanted. Look for her in the upcoming comedy documentary, Laughing Matters: The Next Generation, and prepare to tell the rest of the world that you knew her way back when.
copyright afterellen.com's hot 100 2008
Who's our favorite flexible, flirty and funny lesbian? Comedian Bridget McManus, of course! The 28-year-old former All American cheerleader came to the attention of AfterEllen.com readers after a guest appearance on the vlog We're Getting Nowhere. You demanded more McManus, and the hit AfterEllen.com vlog Brunch With Bridget was born. Broadcasting each week from her bed in Los Angeles, the professionally random McManus talks to her female guests about a variety of topics and ends each episode by cajoling them into a "pillow fight to the death." She also made a memorable cameo as Rhonda the Rapid Delivery girl on the web series 3Way, and can be seen this summer in a very brief appearance in the Angelina Jolie blockbuster Wanted. Look for her in the upcoming comedy documentary, Laughing Matters: The Next Generation, and prepare to tell the rest of the world that you knew her way back when.
copyright afterellen.com's hot 100 2008
by Loralei March 4, 2009
Get the Bridget McManus mug.A "starter castle" that has the potential to be very nice if built on acres of land with a long, winding driveway to get to it but looses it all when it's at an arm's length of the neighbors house.
by Virginia December 31, 2003
Get the mcmansion mug.An obscenely large home (usually of at least 3,000 square feet) in suburban America that is almost too big for its use; cheaply built from the inside out; require constant maintanence; stacked so close together in cookie cutter housing developments that you can hear your neighbor on the john; owned and occupied by pretentious, superficial people who care more about materialism and perceived status than actual value, and spend 14 hours six days a week working to pay off the over-inflated mortgage and have no time to spend with each other and experience life for what it is meant to be. The owners literally work themselves to death to pay the mortgage, who also probably struggle to pay off their 20 credit cards and SUV, but don’t have any other time to live a normal life and experience what life is all about. Despite their obscene size, they are occupied by mostly an empty nest couple who think they need like 5 bedrooms and a 3-car garage. They are built by mostly greedy developers who cram as many homes they can for profit.
But things are changing for the McMansion. They are being built less frequently and becoming less necessary as the size of the average American household declines, as the populations ages, and as the economy and housing market go to the dogs. Simply put, McMansions will soon be a thing of the past as people lose their jobs, money, life savings and everything else. In my opinion McMansions represent waste, greed, materialism and comformity, and are also probably one of the reasons the third world and even some ‘rich’ countries hate us.
But things are changing for the McMansion. They are being built less frequently and becoming less necessary as the size of the average American household declines, as the populations ages, and as the economy and housing market go to the dogs. Simply put, McMansions will soon be a thing of the past as people lose their jobs, money, life savings and everything else. In my opinion McMansions represent waste, greed, materialism and comformity, and are also probably one of the reasons the third world and even some ‘rich’ countries hate us.
The McMansion is the epitome of waste in America, and is nothing more than a status symbol for many pretentious suburban Americans who work to death trying to pay the mortgage and keep up with the Jones'.
by krock1dk@yahoo.com July 19, 2009
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