January 2025 | Eyesore
Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.
Could this possibly be real? It was on a Trulia real estate site in a New England town not to be named. I cannot be more specific, to avoid legal hassles. It’s 10,000 square feet on 6 acres, 9 BRs, 9 baths. Priced at $3,670,600. (What could that final $600 possibly signify?) Some builder gave steroids, Mescaline, and ketamine to the notion of a neo-Georgian house, and this is what you get in that state of “dissociative anesthesia.” (Or perhaps more like aphasia.) Note the three fountains arbitrarily deployed so as to defeat their purpose as focal points. Note the unnecessary brick planting boxes for the cedar shrubs. Note the chimney runs interrupted by windows. Note the blank wall first floor beneath that. Note the triplex fake Georgian windows above the front entrance (scary!). Note the fanlights at left with no windows in them. We have absolutely lost it.
Thanks to Wayne Maglione for the nomination.
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Eyesore of the Month Since 1998
For the first time ever, you can now binge-read and comment on the complete “Eyesore of the Month” archive going all the way back to this feature’s debut in March 1998. That’s more than 300 architectural blunders, abortions and abominations to make you chortle, snort and guffaw. Click here to read them all.
Good call. Massive cluster. I am in TN. No shortage here of huge pretentious residential structures that want to suggest Ante-Bellum glory but actually are Potemkin! Most way out in the county on 30-100 acres and look completely out of context. With a horse barn of course. Lol.
I recently discovered this video about gang-nail plate which explains the rise of the McMansion and is almost certainly a factor in the construction of this silly edifice. This genius invention allowed the relatively cheap and easy creation of these complex roofs. This also means that there's no more attic space, so all those windows that breach the roof line probably don't allow light to directly shine into any of the rooms below -- or into space above.
The gang-nail plate was originally intended to make roofs stronger and less prone to hurricane damage, but consistent with the law of unintended consequences, they've also allowed builders to readily create cartoon versions of classic architectural styles.
https://youtu.be/3oIeLGkSCMA?si=g1QIHjOCSy58nGvW