McMansion Hell
mcmansionhell.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2016
McMansion Hell critiques oversized suburban houses and explains architecture and design, with humor and annotated real-estate photos.
What HN saysHN commenters recommend it for its sarcastic, funny architectural commentary and say they have read it for years.
84HN people shared it
66linked it in comments
35stories submitted
1.2Kstory points
5 months agolast shared
2016people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1McMansion Hell35 people · 40 points · first shared 2016 · 10 comments on HN
- 2What Makes a McMansion Bad Architecture? (2016)6 people · 127 points · first shared 2016 · 103 comments on HN
- 3Mcmansions 101 revisited aesthetics aside why6 people · first shared 2016
- 4Coronagrifting: A Design Phenomenon5 people · 4 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
- 5The Mail Order American Dream: An Introductory Guide to Identifying Kit Houses3 people · 3 points · first shared 2018 · 1 comments on HN
- 6A Pictorial History of Suburbia3 people · 3 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 7What Is Brutalism? Act 1, Scene 1: The Young Smithsons2 people · 3 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
- 8House may or may not be real2 people · 3 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 9Mclean virginia2 people · first shared 2016
- 10Mmh does architectural theory part 5 empiricism2 people · first shared 2017
- 1150 states of mcmansion hell hennepin county2 people · first shared 2017
- 12Mansionvsmcmansion2 people · first shared 2018
- 131012 people · first shared 2017
- 14Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts1 people · 621 points · first shared 2017 · 365 comments on HN
- 15The McMansion Scale, Explained1 people · 291 points · first shared 2016 · 269 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
thebiss · 2023-01-17
Correct. Architects call the perception of size from shape the massing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massing
And if you hate McMansions, you'll love: https://mcmansionhell.com/
mjhay · 2022-12-07
If you like complicated rooflines, you'll love McMansion Hell:
https://mcmansionhell.com/
yekim · 2016-12-22
Love this article.
For those of you who enjoy a heaping meal of architectural commentary sprinkled with a generous portion of sarcasm, check out the author's blog [1]. Literally LOL every time I get a chance to read it.
[1] http://www.mcmansionhell.com/
advisedwang · 2025-07-21
McMansion Hell has an excellent post on Neuschwanstein: https://mcmansionhell.com/post/771073676232785920/on-neuschwanstein-ca…
daniel-thompson · 2024-02-05
i've been reading this blog off and on for years, it's fantastic. a good introductory entry for those not familiar with the concept of a mcmansion: https://mcmansionhell.com/post/149284377161/mansionvsmcmansion
altacc · 2023-06-30
Finally, somewhere to share my a list of dubious property listings! In Norway agents hire house stylists to make a house look good. Airbeds dressed up to look like somebody just got up, magazine pictures on the wall, etc... often to a farcical level in a rundown house.
On a similar theme is Zillow Gone Wild https://twitter.com/zillowgonewild and McMansion Hell https://mcmansionhell.com/
bombcar · 2022-12-07
$10m might be getting into actually architected houses, but certainly down in the $2m you find absolute junk.
It's famous enough that it has a website dedicated to it: https://mcmansionhell.com
It's surprisingly "affordable" to have an entirely custom house designed and built, but the only people who bother are people who are certain they'll be in an area for quite awhile. Otherwise you either buy a developer's house (one of five models that they're pumping out, each one designed to be less obnoxious than the previous, so everything is always "beige" to the max) or you buy an existing one, which is usually just a developer house from a decade or more ago.
I mean anyone can order something from https://www.goldeneagleloghomes.com today and it'll have some kind of a style.
But it would look out of place in a modern subdivision.
p_j_w · 2022-12-07
>https://mcmansionhell.com
Thank you for this. I've had an absolute blast looking at this.
tomatotomato37 · 2022-11-10
I'd say even adding money won't decrease the homogenization of modern day building design; instead it usually just results in a higher quantity of the same, ala the McMansion. There is even an entire blog about how these supposedly unique houses really are the same underneath (https://mcmansionhell.com/)
alistairSH · 2022-09-06
McMansions (whatever that means)
A cookie-cutter, mass-produced home that has no clear architectural style and prizes superficial appearance and size over quality.
https://mcmansionhell.com/
lotsofpulp · 2021-10-22
Read this website and you won’t be able to unsee a lot of things:
https://mcmansionhell.com/
Yaggo · 2021-10-05
Same in Finland. Wooden stick frames are most common but I wouldn't describe them as "flimsy". There is heavy regulation for energy efficiency etc.
Judging purely from stereotypical perspective[1], the houses in US seem to emphasize (big) size and fancy look. You can't build that cheaply unless you give up in quality, thus the flimsyness, I guess.
[1] https://mcmansionhell.com
spiralx · 2021-04-19
It seems it's not just limited to that area :)
https://mcmansionhell.com/
meowster · 2021-02-15
Did I piss off an architect?
If anyone wants to see what I'm talking about, I think there are some examples here: https://McMansionHell.com Some of them aren't really that bad, but there are some definite atrocities.
einr · 2020-09-21
The Obscuritory -- https://obscuritory.com/ -- if you have any interest in the culture surrounding computer games or retrocomputing or even just obscure, weird things in general I can not recommend this enough
OS/2 Museum -- https://www.os2museum.com/
Fun With Virtualization -- https://virtuallyfun.com/
The Old New Thing -- https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing
The Byte Cellar -- https://bytecellar.com/
McMansion Hell -- https://mcmansionhell.com/
joe_the_user · 2019-05-11
So basically the skyscraper version of a McMansion [1] or even, given the talk here of money laundering, an example of Narcotecture creeping into America [2].
[1] https://mcmansionhell.com/
[2] https://stephanierogers.typepad.com/stephanie_rogers/2007/07/narcotect…
Also:
https://www.google.com/search?hs=MvG&channel=fs&q=Narcotecture…
anitil · 2019-04-17
They remind me of the 'McMansion Hell' page - http://mcmansionhell.com/
scott_s · 2018-11-28
The author, Kate Wagner, is also the author of the McMansion Hell blog: http://mcmansionhell.com/ If you haven't read it before, spend a few minutes there. It's a treat.
spc476 · 2018-11-02
On McMansion Hell [1] one of the common criticisms is the mismatched windows. Aesthetic considerations aside, having mismatched windows can be a maintenance issue. One example might be hurricane shutters for homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts---if all the windows are of the same style, it's cheaper (or easier) to obtain the proper shutters (you don't have to obtain six different sizes) and eases installation when required.
Complex roof lines (another symptom of McMansion Hell) leads to leaky roofs [2] and expensive repairs.
[1] http://mcmansionhell.com/
[2] Frank Lloyd Wright's houses notoriously leaked along the roofs. When called upon it, he is recorded as having remarked, "That's how you tell it's a roof!"
squozzer · 2018-09-27
Enjoy McMansion Hell - http://mcmansionhell.com/
I call BS on the single-story build rate > 40%. Finding my current home in 2015 - a single-story - took a lot longer because they weren't that many on the market at a given time. Some were under contract in less than one day on the market! But I am confusing build rate with market availability.
The blame will fall on HGTV for some of the problem.
Another factor is profitability - a 2000 sqft house costs less than 2x to build than a 1000 sqft house, but within the same hypothetical neighborhood, will probably cost 2x or more because of the additional features that additional floor space makes possible.
Casseres · 2018-06-21
You might enjoy reading McMansion Hell [0].
[0] http://mcmansionhell.com
sizzle · 2018-06-15
Your post reminded me of the fakery going on in Mcmansions.
http://mcmansionhell.com/
vanderZwan · 2017-08-11
> This tells me there is a massive disconnect between architects and normal people.
Well, on the other end of the scale we have McMansions[0] - although part of the critiques[1] also feel like architect snobbery to me at times.
[0] http://mcmansionhell.com/
[1] http://mcmansionhell.com/101
c0nducktr · 2017-06-26
You can find some of the posts by searching http://www.mcmansionhell.com/ on archive.org.
strictnein · 2017-06-26
Funny. One of the homes they showed is in my area, and I had driven by it recently (since we're thinking about moving). And they're definitely right. It's a weird mix of horribleness. Especially the kitchen with its "update", aka let's throw in a couple of premium appliances and $2k worth of marble and call it a day.
http://www.mcmansionhell.com/post/162143229176/50-states-of-mcmansion-…
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/19735-Chartwell-Hl-Excelsior-MN-553…
eddyb · 2017-06-26
http://www.mcmansionhell.com/ is still up, for now, at least not all the posts are gone, so have a look.
tsomctl · 2017-01-11
I feel obligated to to point out the blog McMansion Hell (http://www.mcmansionhell.com) which ridicules and explains why these details are ugly.
ykl · 2017-01-10
An excellent time to link to McMansion Hell's various guides on McMansions. Two good starting points are "What Makes a McMansion Bad Architecture" [0] and "The 10 Circles of McMansion Hell" [1].
[0] http://www.mcmansionhell.com/post/148605513816/mcmansions-101-what-mak…
[1] http://www.mcmansionhell.com/post/151896249151/the-10-circles-of-mcman…
et1337 · 2016-12-29
I think the idea is to get a smaller house in the city.
I've been reading a blog called McMansion Hell lately (highly highly recommended), and it has a great article detailing some of the pitfalls of large, affordable suburban homes [1].
[1] http://www.mcmansionhell.com/post/150597521816/mcmansions-101-revisite…
colanderman · 2016-11-04
You might like (or already be aware of) this blog: http://www.mcmansionhell.com/