This is a great thread. While reading, it finally struck me as to what this time in history reminds me of.... It is the exact same empty feeling I get when I happen to stumble across a McMansion. Not so long ago these behemoths were ever-popular and widely desired - the bigger, the better. Most of these homes were critically flawed architecturally, but those flaws were over-looked due to the sheer size and gaudy opulence. At first glance, these mansions were a signal of wealth; that the person living in them had achieved the American Dream and were envied by many. Lots of McMansions were thrown up in the 90s and this could be why I associate it with the beginning of this faux-culture's collapse. If you looked closer then, you could see it, but it is especially apparent now. These beasts of homes were likely occupied by someone living beyond their means. This fact, coupled with the sad truth that many of these homes were built outside of code, lent them impossible to maintain. It was simply too expensive to keep up the illusion of luxury. Overtime they became stale, washed-up eye-sores of a once burgeoning mansion market and their bypassed flaws grew into major malfunctions for all to see. These homes flooded the real estate market during the housing crash of the late 2000s and those that survived demolition fell into foreclosure. With our cultural-societal trajectory, it feel like the masses are finally seeing the particle board behind the veneer. Many are abandoning the McMansion for a smaller, better quality abode and are doing so gleefully.
They were STILL building subdivisions of these here in southern NY not many years ago (and may still be, but I haven't noticed). The standard practice was to bulldoze, completely, all vegetation, to create a lifeless, but easy to build on tract, and then put up the box houses. I don't think the ones they built here in NY could even take a strong tropical storm. We recently bought a house built in 1955. Other than the non-grounded outlets I am replacing, it is very well built and is in a neighborhood where houses were built with minimal tree removal (which is getting to be a problem now because the trees are huge and reaching the end of their lives!). I never could stand those subdivisions where just about every house looks the same and are built almost within arms reach of neighbors. The subdivision we are in probably has 300-400 houses, and I don't think any two are the same, and lots are at least 1/4 acre, with most closer to 1/2 acre, and many wetland/forest areas are scattered throughout, so it's not an endless stretch of houses.
This is a great thread. While reading, it finally struck me as to what this time in history reminds me of.... It is the exact same empty feeling I get when I happen to stumble across a McMansion. Not so long ago these behemoths were ever-popular and widely desired - the bigger, the better. Most of these homes were critically flawed architecturally, but those flaws were over-looked due to the sheer size and gaudy opulence. At first glance, these mansions were a signal of wealth; that the person living in them had achieved the American Dream and were envied by many. Lots of McMansions were thrown up in the 90s and this could be why I associate it with the beginning of this faux-culture's collapse. If you looked closer then, you could see it, but it is especially apparent now. These beasts of homes were likely occupied by someone living beyond their means. This fact, coupled with the sad truth that many of these homes were built outside of code, lent them impossible to maintain. It was simply too expensive to keep up the illusion of luxury. Overtime they became stale, washed-up eye-sores of a once burgeoning mansion market and their bypassed flaws grew into major malfunctions for all to see. These homes flooded the real estate market during the housing crash of the late 2000s and those that survived demolition fell into foreclosure. With our cultural-societal trajectory, it feel like the masses are finally seeing the particle board behind the veneer. Many are abandoning the McMansion for a smaller, better quality abode and are doing so gleefully.
They were STILL building subdivisions of these here in southern NY not many years ago (and may still be, but I haven't noticed). The standard practice was to bulldoze, completely, all vegetation, to create a lifeless, but easy to build on tract, and then put up the box houses. I don't think the ones they built here in NY could even take a strong tropical storm. We recently bought a house built in 1955. Other than the non-grounded outlets I am replacing, it is very well built and is in a neighborhood where houses were built with minimal tree removal (which is getting to be a problem now because the trees are huge and reaching the end of their lives!). I never could stand those subdivisions where just about every house looks the same and are built almost within arms reach of neighbors. The subdivision we are in probably has 300-400 houses, and I don't think any two are the same, and lots are at least 1/4 acre, with most closer to 1/2 acre, and many wetland/forest areas are scattered throughout, so it's not an endless stretch of houses.
Still building them at every shorepoint in Jersey