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Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

mcmansionhell.com

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Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#251

Post by abandonliberty »

uses wrote: post #69

I totally understand the whole "McMansions are bad architecture" thing... However, something about it really bothers me. There was an episode of 99% Invisible where the guest was talking about their McMansions blog and how it makes fun of these Horrid dwellings. The whole thing stank of classist elitism. The Wrong Type of people were getting the chance to design and build large houses, and of course they're applying…

Let's be real. I'm not an architect. I'm a layperson with a decent sense of aesthetics.

60%+ of what McMansion complained about I was oblivious to.

Sure, there are some obvious things but the majority would not be accessible to someone unless they were educated in the field and taught what 'proper' aesthetics are.

Is it still a crime in some circles to wear a blazer with denim?

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#253

Post by mrep »

emodendroket wrote: post #200
toufka wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the more reason the blog is so useful. I'd hate to think with all the modern technology around us that the house I live in 'just doesn't feel right' because it was not built employing the past dozen millennia-worth of architectural knowledge at our social disposal. Just because I am not an architect doesn't mean I want to be swindled into an unknowingly unpleasant home. Just because I'm not an architect of CPUs d…

A lot of time on that blog was spent mocking purely aesthetic features of the homes and I feel like if you like the aesthetic then there is not much else to consider.

I totally agree. That website came off to me as very pretentious in that everyone should adhere to her personal taste when I actually liked how some of the homes looked.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#254

Post by dnautics »

emodendroket wrote: post #200
toufka wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the more reason the blog is so useful. I'd hate to think with all the modern technology around us that the house I live in 'just doesn't feel right' because it was not built employing the past dozen millennia-worth of architectural knowledge at our social disposal. Just because I am not an architect doesn't mean I want to be swindled into an unknowingly unpleasant home. Just because I'm not an architect of CPUs d…

A lot of time on that blog was spent mocking purely aesthetic features of the homes and I feel like if you like the aesthetic then there is not much else to consider.

But I don't think even people who acquire or live in those homes like the esthetic. Remember,mcmansions wind up the way they are because they're ticking off a list of 'things that algorithmically increase the home value'. That's what creates a sense of Inbalance and forces the house to contort into strange forms.

Most denizens, I suspect, probably feel that something is not quite right but couldn't put their finger on it quickly enough to stop their purchase or possibly more cynically, don't care until they flip the house.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#255

Post by mrep »

chiph wrote: post #237
lgas wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't see any pretentiousness in driving around judging a bunch of people on their houses and just ragging on how terrible they are? Really? You might want to look harder.

It'd be pretentious to just arbitrarily say "Those houses are ugly". But she says "Those houses are ugly, and this is why ". While I don't agree with her opinion on all the houses she features, but the vast majority -- yeah, they're pretty bad, and for the reasons she states. * Odd proportions and asymmetry. * Strange roof lines (the "nub" - it's like a Mansard that didn't know when to stop). * Bizarre bump-outs, bec…

But that still comes down to personal subjective taste and she thinks hers is better than the people who bought/designed the home.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#256

Post by mcphage »

falsedan wrote: post #197
careersuicide wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's punching down I generally reject the premise of punching up versus down; but McMansion Hell is emphatically not punching down. Anyone who can afford a $1 million 5000+ square foot house deserves very little sympathy for their bad taste.

Thanks for making my point, but thank you to the undeservingly moneyed lumpenproles who spend their wealth on the wrong things and also in a way which deserves ridicule.

Your point was that it's punching down. Careersuicide [correctly] responded that it's not punching down, it's punching up. Tell me again how that make your point?

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#258

Post by [deleted] »

mschaef wrote: post #209
toufka wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the more reason the blog is so useful. I'd hate to think with all the modern technology around us that the house I live in 'just doesn't feel right' because it was not built employing the past dozen millennia-worth of architectural knowledge at our social disposal. Just because I am not an architect doesn't mean I want to be swindled into an unknowingly unpleasant home. Just because I'm not an architect of CPUs d…

> Why is this so different Benchmarks are at least attempting to be objective. Also, there's a difference between mocking a company's product and mocking a house that is 1) an individual's home 2) their largest investment and 3) is likely, these days, to represent a significant financial liability. I don't like McMansions much myself, but I can absolutely sympathize with people that want an affordable way to get more…

[deleted]

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#259

Post by [deleted] »

prklmn wrote: post #240
mschaef wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is this so different Benchmarks are at least attempting to be objective. Also, there's a difference between mocking a company's product and mocking a house that is 1) an individual's home 2) their largest investment and 3) is likely, these days, to represent a significant financial liability. I don't like McMansions much myself, but I can absolutely sympathize with people that want an affordable way to get more…

> an affordable way to get more space for their family Did you see the asking prices before the content was taken down? I don't remember any of the houses being affordable in any regard > vortex of debt It takes a special person to sympathize with someone living so far beyond their means that they take a $1 million (my average price estimate from the website) mortgage that they can't actually afford

[deleted]

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#260

Post by chadgeidel »

InspiredIdiot wrote: post #238
chadgeidel wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good question. I'm not well-versed enough in design theory to answer, but I'll offer my opinion anyway. :-) The fins on a 1959 Cadillac are well-integrated (design-wise) on the car. It's a theme of the era and the car was designed from the ground up to look like a jet or a rocket. The design elements in a McMansion are not well integrated (see the posts on the site) - they are added on as an afterthought becau…

It doesn't appear that Antoni Gaudí had anything to do with the etymology of the term "gaudy" as it was in use hundreds of years before he was born. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gaudy https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gaudy I couldn't help looking it up because the idea that a single artist could stand out so much to be singularly associated with that term was tempting. I expect that is why such a false as…

Oh! Thank you for that!
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