Estate demo: The mansion no one wanted
ShareEstate demo: The mansion no one wantedThe rear of the mansion as it looks from the far side of the lake.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe front of the estate as you approach the fountain.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comAt the centre of the back yard is the antique Neptune Fountain which came out of Turin, Italy.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comIn back, the view overlooks the grounds and the shell-shaped pool.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe double mahogany doors came from the Chicago Cotton Exchange.
They were almost 11 feet tall and seven feet wide.
They sold at auction for just $7,500, well below the cost to originally purchase them.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThree-and-a-half storeys high, the entry rotunda was inspired by the dome of the Brunelleschi Cathedral in Florence, Italy.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comIn back, the view overlooks the grounds and the shell-shaped pool.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe dining table was 18-feet long
and six-feet wide.
It was Italian made with Malachite inserts, gold-leaf egg
and dart details.
The table and all 18 custom chairs sold for just
$3,900 at auction, a fraction of the original cost.Mary Ann Ramsey Smith
/ PriceyPads.comAerial image of the estate showing the the golf course, driveway, formal gardens and lake.Submitted
/ PriceyPads.comThe Peacock Room was 42 feet in diameter and from the centre of the ceiling, 43 feet above, was an eight-foot pendant chandelier.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe French Suite's bathroom was larger than the original owner's home that he grew up in.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comCappuccino Bar in the Peacock Room.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThis chandelier was custom-made in Italy.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe Hawaiian-art gallery leading to the garage.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comOverlooking the 60-acre estate with formal gardens and private three-acre lake.
More than one million plants were brought in to landscape the estate.
The formal gardens were inspired by the Butchart Gardens near Victoria.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe formal dining room featured an original oil on canvas painting which was applied to the cove ceiling, highlighted by matching antique crystal chandeliers from Bulgaria.
The table had seating for 18 guests.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe French Suite with curved paintings and antique bedroom furniture.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe Grande Salon featured a
ireplace mantel almost 10-feet wide seven feettall.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe cars in the well-lit garage, taken in the early 90s.Mary Ann Ramsey Smith
/ PriceyPads.comThe limestone table beneath the eight-foot pendant chandelier weighed 4,000 pounds.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe Grande Salon's glass wall overlooked the swimming pool, private lake, and formal gardens.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe lower level had a Moroccan influence and was designed after the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comA detailed overdoor originally from the Monte Carlo casino capped the entry into the massive Peacock Room.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe monumental two-tier crystal chandelier at the centre of the room originally cost $45,000 USD.
The chandelier sold at auction for just $16,000. The painting above the fireplace originally cost $90,000 and came from Lowe Gallery in Atlanta.
It measures almost 10-feet tall and ore than seven-feet wide.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe rear of the mansion.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe Silver Suite with sitting room & bedroom.
The room featured extensive silver gilding and a hand-painted 'rug' on the hardwood flooring.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe Silver Suite with sitting room & bedroom.
The room featured extensive silver gilding and a hand-painted 'rug' on the hardwood flooring.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comSecondary spiral staircase by the kitchen which lead to the upper and lower levels.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comThe monumental two-tier crystal chandelier at the centre of the room originally cost $45,000 US.
The chandelier sold at auction for just $16,000.Mitchell Cal
/ PriceyPads.comTwo columns removed from entry rotunda, railings stripped from interior staircase/catwalk, front door removed and replaced, and the fountain removed.PriceyPads.com
/ PriceyPads.comThe back of the house stripped of all the copper railings & antique doors removed and boarded upPriceyPads.com
/ PriceyPads.comThe view from the master suite's deck with the copper rails removed.PriceyPads.com
/ PriceyPads.comThe formal dining room with crated crystal chandeliers and the walls with gaping holes.PriceyPads.com
/ PriceyPads.comThe French Suite torn apart.PriceyPads.com
/ PriceyPads.comThe French Suite's bathroom stripped of its fixtures.
Beautiful pink-andbrown marble flooring and walls remain.PriceyPads.com
/ PriceyPads.comTwo columns removed from entry rotunda, railings stripped from interior staircase/catwalk, front door removed and replaced, and the fountain removed. You can see the temporary wood railings inside the glass rotunda.PriceyPads.com
/ PriceyPads.comLighting fixtures being removed from the Peacock room.APEC Electrial Contractors
/ PriceyPads.comLighting fixtures being removed from the Peacock room.APEC Electrial Contractors
/ PriceyPads.comThe pool area and overgrown gardens as of 2013.PriceyPads.com
/ PriceyPads.comThe grand salon.
The fireplace mantel, built-ins, and all furniture have been removed. Since this photo was taken, the chandeliers and columns have also been removed.PriceyPads.com
/ PriceyPads.comWhat does a $40-million mansion look like after the hardwood, marble and Italian fountains have been stripped out and the manicured grounds are overgrown? Worn out and wasted.This 32,000-sq.-ft. Georgia mansion took $25 million US and more than four years to build when construction started in 1988. The $25 million US went toward — for starters — the formal gardens, fashioned after the famous Butchart Gardens near Victoria and planted with 100,000 annuals every spring and fall throughout the French, Italian and Asian-inspired areas. On the 60-acre property there's
a three-acre man-made lake and an 18-hole, par-72 golf course.Then there's marble floors, copper railings and crystal chandeliers custom-made in Italy, and a limestone pedestal table that weighs 4,000 lb. There's also an amphitheatre that can house a complete orchestra, grass tennis courts, a conservatory, a helipad, a wedding chapel, plus a 10,000-sq.-ft. carriage house, a greenskeeper's cottage and an estate manager's cottage.The house itself has eight bedrooms, 22 bathrooms and 19 fireplaces. The original family that lived here paid $18 million for the staff, taxes and utilities. The annual upkeep alone was about $1 million.Mitchell Cal, a consulting producer for HGTV's Million Dollar Rooms, tells us that he first saw the home on the cover of the May 2003 issue of Unique Homes when he was a teenager.Cal is the proprietor of
and agreed to share the photos and story about this unique home."I knew it was my dream house," he says. "So when I heard it was going to be torn down, I had to see it in person."Cal travelled to Atlanta in 2010 for a private tour of the estate and grounds."I'm thankful the original owners were so kind and welcoming and allowed me to live that dream," he says. "I remain good friends with Larry, the man who built it, and his son, Chris, who did all the interior design."By the early 1990s, the estate was listed for $40 million. Michael Jackson was reported to be an early bidder and wanted the 32,000-sq.ft. residence to be a surprise for then-fiancee Lisa Marie Presley. Jackson didn't buy, and the estate remained on the market for nearly 17 years before entertainer Tyler Perry purchased it for just $7.6 million in 2010. Perry wanted to tear it down, and held an estate sale in which everything from chandeliers, hardwood floors, and mouldings to windows, art and garden fountains was up for grabs. Stripped of its luxury finishing, the mansion is now undergoing demolition."It's heartbreaking to see it like this," says Cal, who explains that the current demolition photos were taken by someone who sneaked onto the property."This mansion didn't get the exposure it deserved, especially near the end when it could have been saved," says Cal.
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We've sent you an email with instructions to create a new password. Your existing password has not been changed.Americans stop buying McMansion - Business Insider
New homes seen next to undeveloped lots in a subdivision in San Marcos, California, in 2012.
Mike Black / Reuters
The McMansion became a symbol of prosperity leading up to the 2008 recession.Homebuyers today are emphasizing quality over quantity.The typical McMansion is not considered the sound investment it once was. For many Americans, perhaps nothing better symbolizes prerecession excess than the McMansion.
If you live in a suburb of one of America's major cities, you're most likely familiar with the idea of a McMansion: a sprawling, often architecturally mishmashed home boasting several thousand square feet.
As the American economy suffered the effects of the 2008 subprime-mortgage crisis, however, photos of foreclosed McMansions in subdivisions across the US served as reminders of what could happen when people try to live beyond their means.
Now, as Americans' attitudes toward conspicuous consumption have evolved in the wake of the recession, the suburban McMansion as we've come to understand it could be on its way out.
Where the McMansion was born
The term "McMansion" was clearly never meant as a compliment. Though there's no clear consensus on the word's exact genesis, it seems to have entered usage around the year 2000, shortly before the US economy saw the effects of the housing bubble.
"Generally speaking, it's part of a collection of nouns, such as McWorld and McDonald-ization, that refer to things that are standardized and bland," Brian Miller, an associate professor of sociology at Wheaton College,
McMansions are often despised for their mixing of architectural styles, disproportional features, and general ostentatiousness. For many, they represent a shift in how Americans have come to think of their homes, from a space they would inhabit for life to one they could use to show off their economic success. Living in a McMansion was a way to keep up with the Joneses, as they say.
"The pretty and prototypical image of such suburbian lifestyle is the seven-bedroom and four-bathroom McMansion with a driveway where three gas-guzzling SUVs are parked (one for dad, one for mom and one for the kids) and a sprawling green lawn that is perfectly manicured with sprinklers spewing hundreds of gallons of water a day," economist Nouriel Roubini wrote in an article in 2008, during the recession. "The result was that the U.S. invested too much & especially in the last eight years & in building its stock of wasteful larger and larger homes and housing capital and of larger and larger private motor vehicles."
Nearly a decade later, these McMansions of the early 2000s are nearing their expiration date.
"The McMansion was built cheaply in order to get maximum items checked off the check-off list for the lowest cost. The designing of houses from the inside out caused the rooflines to be massive and complex," Kate & who writes , a tongue-in-cheek blog that criticizes the design of the typical American McMansion, and who requested that we use only her first name &
in August.
"These roofs are nearing their time of needing to be redone and maintained at extraordinary cost due to their complexity," she said. "As the era of repair draws near, I suspect many homeowners are quietly trying to walk away from their bad decision." Examples of annotated photos by McMansion Hell. According to Kate, the most commonly used materials in McMansions include cheap materials like vinyl siding and exterior stucco finishes.
"The McMansion was never designed to last forever," she said. "The use of more affordable material is generally a good thing, because then more people can afford houses. But part of my disdain for McMansion is that they take up so much space that could house other people."
Developers are still building big houses
And yet, Americans' desire for a large home still seems to be strong. According to the US Census'
of new housing, which concluded with the year 2015, homes on average continue to grow in square footage, though families simultaneously . Nationally,
for a single-family home was 2,467 in 2015, compared with 1,595 in 1980.
Having a separate bedroom for each member of the family seems to still be important, too, as the percentage of new single-family homes with four or more bedrooms continues to rise. In 2015, 47% of new single-family homes had four bedrooms or more, 42% had three bedrooms, and only 10% had two bedrooms or fewer.
Compare this with 1973, when the census data on new homes began, and you'll see a significant difference in the makeup: 23% of new homes had four bedrooms or more, while 64% had three bedrooms and 12% had two bedrooms or fewer.
And according to a
by Trulia, 43% of American adults would like to live in a home that's bigger than where they currently live. That trend was especially evident with millennials ages 18 to 34.
"McMansions are cyclical," Kate of McMansion Hell told Business Insider. "People are still buying them because the market is good. When markets are good, people have excess money to spend, and they tend to buy houses that have excess."
So while it's true that suburban Americans still want big houses, it seems that their tastes have evolved to be a bit more discerning than they were before the recession. They're beginning to see that the enormous, Mediterranean-inspired mansions that were popular before the housing crash were built rather cheaply and are starting to show their age.
These days, Kate says, homebuilders are imitating more complex, New England-inspired colonial homes.
"New houses are being built even bigger than the McMansions of old, and they follow, of course, the trends of now," Kate said. "In 20 years, no one will want to buy them either. They're a testament to the fleeting tastes of the public. Styles that were regional are not anymore."
Toll Brothers, one of the nation's biggest builders of luxury homes, has often been
to as one of the top producers of McMansions before the recession. Interested buyers can
their home from a
of various sizes.
"We're not seeing any reduction in the size of homes people want," Tim Gehman, Toll Brothers' director of design, told Business Insider. "The sizes of homes are back to pre-downturn dimensions, and sales are booming."
Gehman shared that Toll Brothers' Henley model had become the most popular with the company's homebuyers, as it was before the housing crisis. The Henley has 4,771 square feet of space, four bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, and a two-story foyer that opens to a two-story family room with a fireplace. A Toll Brothers Henley model.
Toll Brothers
A Toll Brothers Henley model.
Toll Brothers
Toll Brothers is quick to dismiss the idea that Henley homes & or any of its other luxury home models, for that matter & are McMansions.
"It has to do with proportions. Is it just the same house with a lot more space in it, or is it more smartly designed with more rooms?" Gehman said. "We pride ourselves on the quality of the design, the livability, and the attractiveness of a home. We don't want to be so devoid of what has been historical in any particular region just to get square footage. It's important that it lives in its environment well."
He added: "No one likes McMansions, ever, but a well-appointed luxury home, on the other hand, is still very popular. Our buyers are savvy buyers. As much as they have different tastes, they also know that they're buying a commodity, and they're investing in it. Until the market in general changes its point of view on what is valuable, most are not likely to spend on what they think won't return value."
It's no longer worth the investment
Homebuyers certainly seem to be less willing to pay for cheaply constructed mansions. In an article from August,
from Trulia showing that the premiums paid for McMansions had declined significantly in 85 of the country's 100 biggest cities.
For the purpose of the study, Trulia defined a McMansion as a home that was built from 2001 to 2007 and had 3,000 to 5,000 square feet of space.
To cite one example, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the additional money that buyers were expected to be willing to pay to own a McMansion fell by 84% from 2012 to 2016. In that same city in 2012, a typical McMansion would be valued at $477,000, about 274% more than the area's other homes. Today, a McMansion would be valued at $611,000, or 190% above the rest of the market.
"People don't like to buy dated things," Gehman said. "They know they're going to have to resell it, and they ultimately know it's an investment."
It's likely that large homes & whether they can fairly be called McMansions or not & being built in place of historically significant buildings will continue to cause tension in suburbs across America, as people disagree about the change that bigger homes can bring to a neighborhood at large.
On Long Island, for example, communities have argued over whether local governments should limit the building of large homes or whether the tax benefits they bring are worth the eyesore.
"It's the very opposite of what the neighbors before them valued," Plainview-Old Bethpage school superintendent Lorna Lewis
in an article published in October. "They valued the land, they valued smaller homes, whereas the new trend is to have a home of convenience, where everything is in the home: more bedrooms, playrooms."
"The reality of it is & the entire label of 'McMansions' is out of fear," Mark Laffey, the co-owner and principal of Laffey Real Estate said to Newsday. "People just don't like change, but change is inevitable & it's a question of embracing positive change." A five-bedroom home listed for $1.998 million in Roslyn, New York. Kate, the author of McMansion Hell & whose ire for the home style began when she saw her rural North Carolina neighborhood be transformed into what she called "Anywhere USA" & said she hoped her criticism of the McMansion would help to definitively bring an end to the era of oversize, ill-proportioned homes.
"Among the general population, a positive trend is emerging: People are starting to see that bigger isn't always better & this is evidenced by the tiny-home phenomenon that's been sweeping the nation the last couple of years," she said, adding that McMansions could be declining in value in part because
longer to buy homes in general. The youngest generations of homebuyers tend to value efficiency and technology more than those who came before them, and a McMansion would most likely appear wasteful to this set.
"However, I started McMansion Hell with the goal of educating people about architecture and making them aware of the flaws of these houses (both architectural and sociological) through a combination of humor and easily digestible information in a way people who wouldn't otherwise care about architecture can get engaged with," she said. "If my work can stop just one person from bulldozing a forest to build an oversized house that's a blight on the environment, then I would call McMansion Hell a very successful project."}