The Rise of the McMansion

Even the nation's finest luxury neighborhoods have a category for homes that look cheaply made: McMansions. Home owners in wealthy areas like Bethesda and Chevy Chase, Maryland live in fear of having their homes classified thusly, but occasionally one gets nailed. New neighborhoods are particularly vulnerable because their homes tend to be more modern and less classical - they're also often accused of being more hastily built, although this is rarely the case. For buyers and investors thinking ...

America's Neoclassical Building Tradition

Neoclassical and Greek Revival architecture are two of America's most recognized building forms. Though not in wide use today, these styles, characterized by columns, tall facades, and simple white exteriors, can be easily found on many of the nation's historic landmarks and government buildings, including The Whitehouse. Students of architecture can expect these forms to endure for centuries longer, thanks to their integral role in the American social fabric. While essentially a school ...

Loft Living

Loft living has become synonymous with a trendy urban lifestyle, and many developers are responding to the demand with loft-like or loft-styled options. Traditionally lofts were industrial spaces converted to residential spaces by artistic types. The appeal to artists, so the story goes, started in Paris in the mid 19th-century when large canvasses required high ceilings. In North America, starving artists began inhabiting abandoned warehouse spaces, but the trend really took off in New York, ...