If you visit a lot of real estate venues you may have noticed a growing number of references to homes as mansions.
Mansionization isn’t a word, but then most homes that reporters describe as mansions these days aren’t mansions either. In recent blog posts I’ve seen the moniker applied to homes that count the basement among their piddling 3,500 square feet of space – not even enough to count as a McMansion or to garner a glance in many a mid-priced suburban subdivision.
The Theurer-Wrigley House, also known as the Wrigley Mansion and encompassing more than 16,000 square feet, is one of the very few single-family homes in the city that merits the title. The Dewes Mansion, at 12,000 square feet is, in my take, about the minimum size for a home that can be called a mansion without pausing to wonder whether the description is apt. Unusually lavish detailing, it needs to be noted, may elevate a slightly smaller home into the slim ranks of mansions.
When I was 10 years old my Uncle Johnny lived in a mansion. By the time I’d reached my mid-20s, he no longer did. Johnny didn’t move, but my benchmark did.
What’s the minimum size at which a home deserves to be called a mansion? Is it relative to its surroundings? Does it legitimately differ with an individual’s perspective or is there a more objective standard?
Yes.
The Wrigley and Dewes are mansions because of their size, proportion, and beauty.
Most of what has been built in the last 30 years in the way of “mansions” lacks detail, form, and elegance. Furthermore, most of the modern construction is pure garbage. This is what happens when the only criteria for luxury is size.
Case-in-point: Minimum square footage restrictions in “wealthy” neighborhoods.
I just saw an article somewhere about the increasing size of new developer built SF houses in the suburbs – they are not called “big boxes” rather than McMansions apparently.
Sounds a lot like the “penthouseazation” that was rampant in new construction condos. More real-estate speak: a house is a mansion, a small house a mansionette, an upper floor condo is a penthouse, a basement is a lower level, or garden apartment, and I heard a lap pool referred to as “the roman bath”. Cheers!