Trip Report

[dpg]

Who ever came up with the term McMansions anyway? I think it's the dumbest name and no it's not because I don't own one.

[Lakegeezer]

Originally Posted by dpg

Who ever came up with the term McMansions anyway? I think it's the dumbest name and no it's not because I don't own one.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMansion

McMansion is a pejorative neologism, coined by NY environmentalist Jay Westervelt, (Westerveld)^[1] to describe a particular type of housing that is constructed in an assembly line fashion reminiscent of food production at McDonald'sfast food restaurants. The term is one of many McWords. A McMansion often denotes a home with a larger footprint than a median home, an indistinct architectural style similar to others nearby, and is often located in a newer, larger subdivision or replaces an existing, smaller structure in an older neighborhood.
A McMansion is generally considered^[who?] a house between 3000 ft² (280 m²) to 5000 ft² (460 m²) in size, on small lots (the house itself often covering a larger portion of the land than the yard), in homogeneous communities that are often produced by a developer. Although they are generally large homes, they are mass produced and are not of the caliber of a mansion. Their cost places them in the purchasing range of the upper middle class segment of the population.
The term McMansion first appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune in 1990^{[citation needed]}; it later appeared in the Los Angeles Times^[2] and New York Times in 1998.^[3]

[jeffk]

Given this definition, "big house on a small lot, cheaply constructed", I would say that most of the housing on the lake that I thought might be given this label are, in reality, NOT McMansions. I guess they are just real mansions.