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Un-Neighborly McMansions
He is not the only homeowner who has bought adjoining properties to create a buffer zone. In Medina, Wash., Bill Gates has purchased several lots around his $135 million home. In New York wealthy apartment owners routinely buy adjoining units and tear down walls to gain precious square footage. Of course, not everyone can find a spare hundred thousand or two to keep a McMansion from rising above theirs—and, admittedly, it's a lot easier to swing these deals in Omaha than in a place like Wellesley, where even a tear-down often costs more than half a million dollars.
Milton is hardly the only architect who's against the bigger-is-better mentality when it comes to houses. For nearly a decade architect Sarah Susanka has been trying to educate people that all the focus on square footage is misguided. "More rooms, bigger spaces and vaulted ceilings do not necessarily give us what we need in a home," Susanka wrote in her 1998 manifesto, "The Not So Big House." Instead Susanka argues that Americans are better off building smaller, more thoughtfully designed homes utilizing higher-quality interiors, alcoves and bookshelves, natural materials and trim.
But when that kind of moral suasion doesn't work, Milton maintains that for concerned homeowners with the financial wherewithal, buying the house next door can make sense. "Given the right opportunity, if it's the right house and the right neighborhood, this is a great way to go," he says. "It solved our concerns, and it has really been a win-win … It's going to wind up making us money."
With his children in high school, Milton says he may be ready to sell his own house in a few years. When he does, he has no illusions about what will happen next. "When we sell both lots, somebody can build a really big house," he says, predicting the buyer will level both homes. "I hate to say that, but inevitably that's what's going to happen." Until then, his family has the pleasure of having made a good investment—and of looking out their window and not having the sky blotted out by the house next door.
Daniel McGinn is a national correspondent for NEWSWEEK and the author of "House Lust: America's Obsession With Our Homes," to be published by Doubleday this January. To learn more about the book, click here .
© 2007
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Member Comments
Posted By: IndigoThunder @ 02/04/2008 11:58:47 PM
Comment: I live in just such a neighborhood. We are a few blocks from the Atlantic Ocean on Florida's "Treasure Coast". I find the McMansions pretentious...really, how much house does a person need? (I'm a fan of Susanka myself, having 4 of her books). I agree McMansions are "un-neighborly". Most of us don't have fences, we have beautiful thick, colorful tropical foilage surrounding our lots - that is until it is torn down & replaced with a concrete wall by a neighboring McMansion. Our home is for sale, and I can't wait to move!
Posted By: Eric Lindsay @ 12/08/2007 9:09:38 PM
Comment: That Milton guy is a very smart guy.
Posted By: misterharban @ 12/05/2007 7:48:47 PM
Comment: I???m sure that some of the tear downs described are quality structures worthy of preservation. The underlying reason for many tear downs, however, is that they are poorly built houses in good locations. Generally, tear down epidemics do not occur on the fringes of large urban areas. They occur near prime locations. My daughter lives in an area near Birmingham, Alabama which is undergoing the final stages of a near total epidemic of tear downs. The houses being destroyed are sixty or so years old and were not well built when they were new. They have been remodeled pell mell over the years and are very expensive, generally costing more than 350 thousand dollars. I can assure you that while some might call a 60 year old remodeled cottage charming, in any other locations they would be 60 thousand dollar junk starter homes. Further remodeling would only be putting lipstick on very expensive pigs. In point of fact, many have dangerous wiring, faulty plumbing and extensive termite damage. The real crime, if there is one, is that many of the McMansions that go up both here and in new construction areas which are a part of urban sprawl often trade space and pretension for quality and lasting architectural value thereby ensuring that at some time in the future, the occupants will live in big, ugly, worn out pieces of crap that are not worth remodeling. It is nearly a perfect circle.