Is There Life After McMansions? Yes,... When Quality Defines The Life.

Morning sunrise on Jupiter Island.

There has been plenty of excess over the last few years and perhaps the state of the current economy is symptomatic of that to some degree.  Consider the excessively large homes that were built, some easily exceeding 25,000 square feet on lots that are not much bigger.  Recently Aaron Spelling's home in LA's Holmby Hills finally sold this summer but at 57,000 square feet and with a price tag of 150 million, it took nearly three years to find a buyer. 

When a client a few years ago approached me about designing and  building their dream home, it was easy to see that it wasn't so much a dream home but a statement that he had "made it."  After selling his thriving business, he bought three lots on a very narrow strip of Jupiter Island, Florida, one directly on the ocean, the other two across the street situated on the Intracostal Waterway.  It would be on these properties where he imagined his dream would come true of building something that would be - in his words -  "more than keeping up with the Jones but would blow them out of the water." 

I kept questioning his rationale and would continually pull him back from "over-building his dream."  I suggested that it was much more important to build with classic forms, a design appropriate and suitable to site and with unmeasurable quality rather than just size.  Over time, I successfully won that argument.  We worked as a team and with a most wonderful builder, Sands Construction, to construct what was a "tract house" of just over 10,000 square feet.   But it was in the beach side guest house where the client spent quality times, just he and his very special wife.  It was their retreat away from the "big house" even thought it was just across the the beach road." 

In a short five years, my client share with me his plans had changed.  The home no longer fit needs of his family.  No too long after, he sold the home, fully furnished to new owners. 

With new owners ready to put their stamp on the property, the residence was almost fully torn down and in its place a McMansion that nearly tripled the size of the original home.  It was sad to see all that we had designed end up in a pile of rubble especially after such a short period of use.  

As I reflect, there are two points that come to mind :
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1. Quality always wins.  Everytime.  Design is not always design when it tries to replicate something that it "just ain't"... like all the faux finishes and extruded plastic moldings in use today that do a poor job of imitating some historical architectural style.   But there is not thing that you just can't fake.  It's either quality or it's not.  
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2.  Bigger is not always better.  The desire to live "bigger than life" doesn't always provide the return on the investment one expects.   Big spaces are often void of fulfilling human experience.   It's better to be "best" than "big."  
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My client passed unexpectedly not long after he moved out from his big dream.   He and his wife resided in a smaller residence but it was about quality and having the best.  What I will always fondly recall is that he lived life in the best way he could and enjoyed sharing that with others.  He was always about quality and surrounded by the best. 

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