To upwardly-mobile Americans, those gigantic suburban houses known as McMansions might signal affluence and "making it," but they鈥檙e nails on a chalkboard to Kate Wagner, the writer behind the irreverent blog
Wagner was in Columbus this week to give an architectural lecture to students at the Columbus College of Art and Design, and to give a presentation to the group Young Ohio Preservationists at the Ohio Statehouse.
It's a perfect fit for Wagner, who uses her website as a sarcastic foil to the upscale housing industry. Her signature posts include a picture of a McMansion's exteriors and interiors with comments like, 鈥淭his column is made of foam,鈥� or 鈥淭his window is breaking my soul.鈥�
She takes aim at gaudy trends in decorating: "Can one even build a >$1 million house without having a four post bed in the master bedroom?" And at other symbols of wealth and power: "Only manly things happen on this desk like cigar smoking and business."
So what exactly makes a ? It鈥檚 mostly about size, Wagner says, although not all big homes are McMansions.
"Usually there's some kind of mismatched aesthetic, where some windows will be different shapes or styles, there will be different materials on each mass of the house, or each face," Wagner says. "And there will be incongruous architectural details from different periods, places and styles."
Most McMansions also tend to rely on cheaper materials, which is why they became popular in the first place.
鈥淭hrough the entirety of architectural history, for the most part, the sort of upwardly mobile or the wealthy and famous hired architects to sort of further the art of architecture," Wagner says. "That鈥檚 always been where some of America鈥檚 most famous houses have come from."
That's also what makes the McMansion trend now so disappointing, she says, especially because cheap materials shouldn't prevent people from making a good house.
鈥淭he fact is," Wagner says, "that kind of lineage was eroded with the sort of advent of custom building in the 70s and 80s when families could just say, 鈥榃hy would I hire an architect when I can get exactly what I want? I鈥檓 the architect now.'"
Though she鈥檚 grown famous because of her witty and often silly takes on McMansions, Wagner has some serious architectural chops. Her blog also includes in-depth , and even a first-history account of how she learned about .
Wagner temporarily shut down her site earlier this year after real estate site Zillow threatened her with legal action that most experts saw as an overreach. After the Elecronic Frontiers Foundation came to Wagner's defense, Zillow eventually backed down.
Wagner鈥檚 received a lot of media attention since launching her blog last summer, but says she has not received any pushback from homeowners.
鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 important to have an objective analysis of an architectural sort, not necessarily to get the personal involved," Wagner says. "Home is always going to be home.鈥�
