There’s a debate raging in the metropolitan area I live in that is being argued in communities throughout the country, especially in places where custom home building is flourishing. The controversy is over the appropriate size of new houses being built in established neighborhoods; the media has dubbed the subject of this debate mansionization. When a supersized house rises up on the rare empty in-town lot or replaces a razed neighborhood regular, it invariably stirs up the locals. Homeowners object, often passionately, to the change in the scale and look of their neighborhood.
As a homeowner in a neighborhood that’s beginning to show signs of creeping mansionization, I’ve been trying to decide where I come down in this issue. On the one hand, it’s easy to understand how folks neighboring a newly built behemoth might feel. Not only has the scale of their neighborhood been drastically altered, but also their privacy is threatened by neighboring windows that are both too close and high enough to view their yards and decks. Fences may make good neighbors, but not when the neighbor’s house looms over yours.
On the other hand, if the neighborhood has become so desirable that someone is willing to pay a handsome price for one of its humble houses just to own the land under it, one might be tempted to fantasize about one’s potential net worth. At least until totaling up the cost of replacing one’s humble house.
But I think there is a more rational way to judge the effects of mansionization than by “how big” or “how much.” The real focus should be on “how well designed.” Let me lead you back to my neighborhood again, where several relatively big houses—3,500 square feet and more—recently have been built among the 1,400-square-foot-and-much-less old timers on lots that are just 40 or 50 feet wide. The results, I must admit, have not been bad because each of these houses has been designed with respect for the existing scale and style of the neighborhood and with consideration of the neighbors’ privacy and light. They add to the street scene and improve more than property values. But I’ve seen other neighborhoods where enormous new houses, usually built on spec, are shoehorned onto small city lots, with a result that would be comic if it weren’t so destructive to the fabric of the surrounding neighborhood.
So, for me and I suspect for most people, it all comes down to whether the architectural design of the new house on the block is both pleasing and sensitive to its context. If someone wants to replace one of the bungalows that flank my house with a bigger version of that friendly front-porch style, great. But if anyone tries to cram Tara on steroids onto one of those lots, you’ll find me down at City Hall with the rest of the neighbors.
