16,000 square feet? Maybe the person who started this post was just kidding around.

"According to many’s descriptions of a McMansion here ( a home built solely for the purpose of impressing others) then the mansions in Newport would fall into that category; the Biltmore estate, Versailles for heavens sake! Every grand home was built to impress! The OP asked a simple question! They didn’t ask if we liked it, if we thought they needed the room, if we thought they deserved it! In fact they didn’t even say they were building this house! Such judgmental posts:(! "

just because a house is old does not automatically mean its not gauche. there are many old examples of mcmansions that are over a century old.

McMansions don't last for a century. That's the whole point.

And just because you may think something is gauche doesn't make it a McMansion. Whether we like a particular mansion or not, it's in a different category than a jumped-up tract home with a few fancy faux features. Here's a house that has some similarities with the OPs, even though it's not French. It even has a turret. Double height entry windows. Mix of windows on the facade. Gauche? Maybe (though I don't think so). Mansion, definitely.

"...there are many old examples of mcmansions that are over a century old..."

Ok, I'll call your bluff. Let's see some of the "many examples"! We'll wait...

Do do do do do do do, do do do do do do do dup do doodooo....

Would love to own it if I could afford it.

Missing the point: McMansions are not quality builds. If they were they would be mansions. Get the difference? Integrity.

When those summer homes in Newport were built, every single person invovled was an artist in his trade. Floors were peach or some other fabulous wood; marble honed; wood work milled by hand.

McMansions were born in the 90’s. Why? Get rich quick years. A good example is outside MacLean VA. Huge homes built on half acre lots….awful, awful. You can stand at your kitchen sink, lean out the window and ask your neighbor for some Dawn detergent, which she easily passes over to you.

McDonald's restaurants started in 1948.

"McMansions don't last for a century."

Yes, if Howard Roark has his way.

(Fountainhead movie reference)

Virgil Carter Fine Art

"...there are many old examples of mcmansions that are over a century old..."

Ok, I'll call your bluff. Let's see some of the "many examples"! We'll wait..."

Dont hold your breath. you clearly think every old mansion was brilliant architecture.

oh wait, youre the guy that thinks frank lloyd wright was architecture god.

lol

There are a LOT of "McMansions on the Gold Coast in CT. They are NOT tract houses, they were custom built. They are not shoddily built of cheap materials - they are built with significant quality. But they're McMansions as they are very OTT in every possible way. There were mansions built in CT in the past - some very, very large, and very, very grand. But the design itself was excellent, and everything was gorgeous, even if "grand". Such houses had a "staff" to maintain it.

Most of the McMansions are lucky to have a weekly cleaning service but most do have a nanny, as these are built by young families. The floorpans are very poorly designed. A "library" with no books? Really? Lots and lots of "open concept". Can you really imagine Downton Abbey being "open concept"? Everything about them is just "wrong" - few interior walls, no privacy, multiple sitting rooms that no one uses - a kitchen that is enormous but not at all suitable for caterers, and if one has a house that large, will they not be entertaining on a large scale, which requires a caterer?

And today, many of these McMansions are in foreclosure. Yes, even those with 7 - even 8 digit salaries often leave beyond their means. And the houses are just not "livable" in any possible way.

DE - I think you're still missing the point. There are plenty of large houses out there and some of them are ugly. That doesn't make them McMansions. It is a logical fallacy to argue, as you seem to be doing, that, since all McMansions are examples of poor architecture, every example of poor architecture must be a McMansion.

No. Go back and reread all the McMansion blogs because the constant theme is poor design but also poor materials, poor workmanship, cheap faux finishes, an incoherent pastiche of styles . McMansions are essentially mass produced, disposable homes, cheaply built with definite "use by dates." That's why the nickname developed: the "Mc" is a hint. Mansions, on the other hand, are there for the long term, built with good materials by craftsmen, observing the basic principles of design. You may think that 18th or 19th c mansion you dislike is overdone, oversized, and unnecessary, and you may be correct, but none of that makes it a McMansion.

http://mcmansionhell.com/101

I know Janie Gibbs you said this one sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the other houses on the road but I beg to differ. I personally don’t think it stands out at all. It definitely looks like a quality build.

Where I live we have several McMansion subdivisions but one in particular is classic McMansion. There are literally hundreds built quickly by a builder using cheap materials. They are HUGE on very small lots for their size. The Interiors don’t seem to be well thought out even though they are huge with all sorts of fake stuck on “architecural” elements inside and out. Some are a bit more simple but some are OTT with all sorts of different roof lines. Some sold for a few million or more but most in the $8 to $900,000 range.

I hate that the OP has disappeared but don’t blame her! Hope she comes back. What a fun dilemma this would have been.

"...there are many old examples of mcmansions that are over a century old..."

Still waiting for our resident architectural critic to show us some of the "many old examples of mcmansions"...

Ya know . . . a large and impressive house in Scotland is a MacMansion.

It's all those pointy things on the top...do you suppose they called the local lumberyard for trusses and the order got mixed up...?

Just a little joke...don't get upset!

Haha. I don’t know how long that took to build Mark or what size plot it’s on but do know some of the old castles (McMansions) in France took generations to build. :))))

And the OP was never seen again !

A McMansion from a few years back...? There's a bit of a tidal issue...

"Ya know . . . a large and impressive house in Scotland ..."

So in Ireland, it'd be an O'Mansion?

That is Mont Saint-Michel!!! Norther France. I was there just a couple of years ago. A village surrounding a castle!!!!

Dont like the gray weather there but it is pretty amazing even though its overrun with tourists. :)))

Now this is may be hundreds of years newer but s this a McMansion?

Just look at that roof! :)

"...to be honest, if anyone, regardless of wealth, built something like this, it would come across as clueless, garish and completely out of touch..:

Google Mont Saint-Michelle.

Envy and jealousy show up at every level

I’m enviousI want a mansion with loads of servants that provide me with privacy of course. :))

But that is Oprah’s house and one of the most expensive in the world!

I don’t think it’s a McMansion. lol

In Los Angeles, these are considered "McMansions".

According to Wikipedia, McMansion is a pejorative term for a large "mass-produced" dwelling, constructed with low-quality materials and craftsmanship, using a mishmash of architectural symbols to invoke connotations of wealth or taste, executed via poorly imagined exterior and interior design.

Most houses are built to impress to some degree, and just because it is large does not induce the "Mc" portion of the term.

In the last pic above, I prefer the new house to the old one, the old one looks hideous to me, like a Taco Bell or something.

The older smaller house (which I do not consider hideous btw) is probably representative of the neighborhood (1920s-30s builds) so the modern "McMansion" is out of place, but since the trend is to buy and tear down the old small homes and build lot line to lot line filling houses that will change.

Anyone in Los Angeles area correct me if I am wrong, but I think in LA the term "McMansion" refers to any tear down of an older home, and rebuilt to maximum foot print and height possible, regardless of style (or lack thereof). Some definitely more taseteful than others.

think we are being trolled, but its a fun subject.

Well, the McMansion Hell author pretty much excludes contemporary homes from her blog because her focus is on bad recreations of traditional homes and architectural features, so those are McModerns possibly (but again, only if they ignore the basic fundamental of architecture and good construction). Just being big doesn't make a house a Mc-anything any more than eating a burger means you must be in McDonalds.

And to think this all started with a truck.

You call that a truck? Now THIS is a truck - a McTruck, possibly, even if it's not a Mack truck

Holy crap!!! That's a truck! I was thinking I had a good one to add to this, but you totally blew mine out of the water Jmm!!!

Oh mine's not a Mack either. International actually lol

Voltronic75, that first one is a doozy! I can understand why the word McModern has now been invented! They may be using quality materials I don’t know but that sure looks like an eyesore to me, a large concrete block squeezed in a small lot.