The McMansion Is the Big Mac of Suburbia

The McMansion Is the Big Mac of Suburbia McMansion is a derogatory term for a large, showy neo-eclectic architectural style home, usually built by a developer without the guidance of an architects custom design. The word McMansion was coined in the 1980s by architects and architecture critics in response to the many over-sized, poorly designed, expensive homes being built in American suburbs. The word McMansion is cleverly derived from the name McDonalds, the fast food chain restaurant. Think about what is offered under the golden arches of McDonalds  - big, fast, tasteless food. McDonalds is known for mass producing super-sized everything in huge quantities.  So, a McMansion is the Big Mac hamburger of architecture - mass produced, quickly built, generic, bland, and unnecessarily large. The McMansion is part of the McDonaldization of Society. Features of a McMansion A McMansion has many of these characteristics: (1) over-sized in proportion to the building lot, which is usually a defined space in a suburban neighborhood; (2) poorly proportioned placement of windows, doors, and porches; (3) excessive use of gabled roofs or a bizarre mixture of roof styles; (4) poorly planned mixture of architectural details and ornamentation borrowed from a variety of historical periods; (5) abundant use of vinyl (e.g., siding, windows) and artificial stone; (6) unpleasing combinations of many different siding materials; (7) atria, great rooms, and other grand open spaces that are rarely used; and (8) quickly constructed using mix-and-match details from a builders catalog. McMansion is a snarky word used to describe a certain type of house, for which there is no absolute definition. Some people use the word to describe an entire neighborhood of overly large houses. Other people use the word to describe an individual house of new construction, more than 3,000 square feet, that has replaced a more modest house on the same lot. A very large house in a neighborhood of mid-century modest homes would look disproportional. A Symbol of Economic Status Is the McMansion anything new? Well, yes, sort of. McMansions are unlike the mansions of yesteryear. In the Gilded Age of America, many people became very wealthy and built opulent homes - usually a city dwelling and a country house, or cottage as the Newport, Rhode Island mansions are called. In the early 20th century, large, rambling homes were built in Southern California for people in the movie industry. No doubt, these homes are objects of excess. Generally, however, they are not considered McMansions because they were individually built by people who really could afford them. For example, Biltmore Estate, often called the largest private home in the United States, was never a McMansion because it was designed by a well-known architect and built by moneyed people on many, many acres of land. Hearst Castle,  William Randolph Hearsts estate in  San Simeon, California, and Bill and Melinda Gates 66,000 square foot house, Xanadu 2.0, are not McMansions for similar reasons. These are mansions, plain and simple. McMansions are a type of wannabe mansion, built by upper-middle class people with enough down payment money to show off their economic status. These homes are usually highly mortgaged to people who can afford the monthly interest payment, but who have obvious disregard for architectural aesthetics. They are trophy homes. The leveraged McMansion becomes a status symbol, then - a business tool that depends on property appreciation (i.e., natural price increase) to make money. McMansions are real estate investments instead of architecture. Reaction to McMansions Many people love McMansions. Likewise, many people love McDonalds Big Macs. That doesnt mean theyre good for you, your neighborhood, or society. Historically, Americans have rebuilt their communities every 50 to 60 years. In the book Suburban Nation, Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck tell us that its not too late to untangle the mess.  The authors are pioneers in the rapidly growing movement known as New Urbanism. Duany and Plater-Zyberk launched the groundbreaking Congress for the New Urbanism which strives to promote the creation of pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. Jeff Speck is the director of town planning at Duany Plater-Zyberk Co. The firm is noted for designing pristine communities such as Seaside, Florida, and Kentlands, Maryland. McMansions are not in their visions for America. Old-fashioned neighborhoods with walkable roads and corner shops may seem idyllic, but New Urbanist philosophies are not universally embraced. Critics say that pretty communities like Kentlands, Maryland, and Seaside, Florida, are as isolated as the suburbs they try to replace. Moreover, many New Urbanist communities are considered pricey and exclusive, even when they arent filled with McMansions. Architect Sarah Susanka, FAIA, became famous by rejecting McMansions and the notion of what she calls starter castles. She has created a cottage industry by preaching that space should be designed to nurture the body and soul and not to impress the neighbors. Her book, The Not So Big House, has become a textbook for 21st-century living. More rooms, bigger spaces, and vaulted ceilings do not necessarily give us what we need in a home, writes Susanka. And when the impulse for big spaces is combined with outdated patterns of home design and building, the result is more often than not a house that doesnt work. Kate Wagner has become the go-to critic of the McMansion form. Her commentary website called McMansion Hell is a clever, snarky personal assessment of the house style. In a local TED talk, Wagner rationalizes her animosity by suggesting that in order to avoid bad design, one must recognize bad design - and McMansions have a plethora of opportunities to hone ones critical thinking skills. Before the economic downturn of 2007, McMansions proliferated like mushrooms in a field. In 2017 Kate Wagner was writing about The Rise of the McModern -  McMansions persist.  Perhaps its a byproduct of a capitalistic society. Perhaps its the notion that you get what you pay for - small houses can cost as much to build as larger houses, so how do we rationalize living in tiny homes?   I believe, concludes Sarah Susanka, that the more people put their money where their hearts are, the more others will realize the validity of building for comfort, and not prestige. Source The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka with Kira Obolensky, Taunton, 1998, pp. 3, 194

Biography of William Lloyd Garrison, Abolitionist

Biography of William Lloyd Garrison, Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (December 10, 1805–May 24, 1879) was one of the most prominent American abolitionists and was both admired and vilified for his unwavering opposition to slavery in America. As the publisher of The Liberator, a fiery antislavery newspaper, Garrison was at the forefront of the crusade against slavery from the 1830s until he felt the issue had been settled by the passage of the 13th Amendment following the Civil War. Fast Facts: William Lloyd Garrison Known For: Abolitionist crusaderBorn: December 10, 1805 in Newburyport, MassachusettsParents: Frances Maria Lloyd and Abijah GarrisonDied: May 24, 1879 in New York CityPublished Works: Publisher of The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaperAwards and Honors: Boston has a statue of Garrison on Commonwealth Avenue. The Museum of African American History’s â€Å"Living Legends Awards†Ã‚  recipients are given a replica of a silver cup that was presented to William Lloyd Garrison in 1833 by black community leaders. Garrison has a  feast day  (Dec. 17) on the  liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church.Spouse: Helen Eliza Benson (m. Sept. 4, 1834–Jan.25, 1876)Children: George Thompson,  William Lloyd Garrison Sr.,  Wendall Phillips,  Helen Frances (Garrison) Villard,  Francis Jackson.Notable Quote: If the State cannot survive the antislavery agitation, then let the State perish. If the Church must be cast down by the strugglings of Humanity to be free, the n let the Church fall and its fragments be scattered to the four winds of Heaven, never more to curse the earth. Early Life and Career William Lloyd Garrison was born to a very poor family in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on Dec. 10, 1805. His father deserted the family when Garrison was 3 years old, and his mother and his two siblings lived in poverty. After receiving a very limited education, Garrison worked as an apprentice in various trades, including shoemaker and cabinet maker. He wound up working for a printer and learned the trade, becoming the printer and editor of a local newspaper in Newburyport. After an effort to operate his own newspaper failed, Garrison moved to Boston, where he worked in print shops and became involved in social causes, including the temperance movement. Garrison, who tended to see life as a struggle against sin, began to find his voice as the editor of a temperance newspaper in the late 1820s. Garrison met Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker who edited a Baltimore-based antislavery newspaper, The Genius of Emancipation. Following the election of 1828, during which Garrison worked on a newspaper that supported Andrew Jackson, he moved to Baltimore and began working with Lundy. In 1830, Garrison got into trouble when he was sued for libel and refused to pay a fine. He served 44 days in the Baltimore city jail. While he earned a reputation for courting controversy, in his personal life Garrison was quiet and extremely polite. He married in 1834 and he and his wife had seven children, five of whom survived to adulthood. Publishing The Liberator In his earliest involvement in the abolitionist cause, Garrison supported the idea of colonization, a proposed ending of slavery by returning slaves in American to Africa. The American Colonization Society was a fairly prominent organization dedicated to that concept. Garrison soon rejected the idea of colonization, and split with Lundy and his newspaper. Striking out on his own, Garrison launched The Liberator, a Boston-based abolitionist newspaper. On Jan. 11, 1831, a brief article in a New England newspaper, the Rhode Island American and Gazette, announced the new venture while praising Garrisons reputation: Mr. Wm. L. Garrison, indefatigable and honest advocate of the abolition of slavery, who has suffered more for conscience sake and independence than any man in modern times, has established a newspaper in Boston, called the Liberator. Two months later, on March 15, 1831, the same newspaper reported on the early issues of The Liberator, noting Garrisons rejection of the idea of colonization: Mr. Wm. Lloyd Garrison, who has suffered much persecution in his efforts to promote the abolition of Slavery, has commenced a new weekly paper in Boston, called the Liberator. We perceive he is extremely hostile to the American Colonization Society, a measure we have been inclined to regard as one of the best means of effecting the gradual abolition of slavery. The blacks in New York and Boston have held numerous meetings and denounced the colonization society. Their proceedings are published in the Liberator. Garrisons newspaper would continue publishing every week for nearly 35 years, only ending when the 13th Amendment was ratified and slavery was permanently ended after the end of the Civil War. Supports Slave Rebellion In 1831 Garrison was accused, by Southern newspapers, of involvement in the slave rebellion of Nat Turner. He had nothing to do with it. And, in fact, it is unlikely that Turner had any involvement with anyone outside his immediate circle of acquaintances in rural Virginia. Yet when the story of the rebellion spread in northern newspapers, Garrison wrote editorials for The Liberator praising the outbreak of violence. Garrisons praise of Turner and his followers brought him attention. And a  grand jury in North Carolina issued a warrant for his arrest. The charge was seditious libel, and a Raleigh newspaper noted that the penalty was whipping and imprisonment for the first offense, and death without benefit of clergy for a second offense. Sparks Controversy The writings of Garrison were so provocative that abolitionists dare not travel into the South. In an attempt to circumvent that obstacle, the American Anti-Slavery Society undertook its pamphlet campaign in 1835. Dispatching human representatives of the cause would simply be too dangerous, so antislavery printed material was mailed into the South, where it was often intercepted and burned in public bonfires. Even in the North, Garrison was not always safe. In 1835, a British abolitionist visited America and intended to speak with Garrison at an antislavery meeting in Boston. Handbills were circulated that advocated mob action against the meeting. A mob assembled to break up the meeting, and as newspaper articles in late October 1835 described it, Garrison tried to escape. He was captured by the mob and was paraded through Boston streets with a rope around his neck. The mayor of Boston finally got the mob to disperse, and Garrison was unharmed. Garrison had been instrumental in leading the American Anti-Slavery Society, but his inflexible positions eventually led to a split in the group. Conflict With Frederick Douglas His positions even brought him into conflict at times with Frederick Douglass, a former slave and leading antislavery crusader. Douglass, to avoid legal problems and the possibility that he could be arrested and brought back to Maryland as a slave, eventually paid his former owner for his freedom. Garrisons position was that buying ones own freedom was wrong, as it essentially verified the concept that slavery itself was legal. For Douglass, a black man in constant peril of being returned to bondage, that type of thinking was simply impractical. Garrison, however, was intractable. The fact that slavery was protected under the U.S. Constitution outraged Garrison to the point that he once burned a copy of the Constitution at a public meeting. Among the purists in the abolition movement, Garrisons gesture was seen as a valid protest. But to many Americans, it only made Garrison appear to be operating on the outer fringe of politics. The purist attitude always held by Garrison was to advocate resisting slavery, but not by use of political systems that acknowledged its legality. Later Years and Death As the conflict over slavery became the central political issue of the 1850s, thanks to the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and a variety of other controversies, Garrison continued to speak out against slavery. But his views were still considered out of the mainstream, and Garrison continued to rail against the federal government for accepting the legality of slavery. However, once the Civil War began, Garrison became a supporter of the Union cause. When the war had ended and the 13th Amendment legally established the end of American slavery, Garrison ended publication of The Liberator, feeling that the struggle had ended. In 1866 Garrison retired from public life, though he would occasionally write articles which advocated equal rights for blacks and women. He died on May 24, 1879. Legacy Garrisons views during his own lifetime were commonly considered extremely radical and he was often subjected to death threats. At one point he served 44 days in jail after being sued for libel, and he was often suspected of participating in various plots considered to be crimes at the time. Garrisons outspoken crusade against slavery led him to denounce the United States Constitution as an illegitimate document, as it institutionalized slavery in its original form. Garrison once sparked controversy by publicly burning a copy of the Constitution. It can be argued that Garrisons uncompromising positions and extreme rhetoric did little to advance the antislavery cause. However, Garrisons writings and speeches publicized the abolitionist cause and were a factor in making the antislavery crusade more prominent in American life. Sources â€Å"Tidbits About William Lloyd Garrison His Statue on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall.†Ã‚  BostonZest.â€Å"William L. Garrison.†Ã‚  Battle of Lake Erie - Ohio History Central.Goodison, Donna, and Donna Goodison. â€Å"African-American Museum Honors Two Living Legends.†Ã‚  Boston Herald, Boston Herald, 17 Nov. 2018.