05/04/09 Greenwich Life: Environment - The Big House Id Dead

Little Boxes
E/The Environmental Magazine

....Rogers grew up in a sprawling 10-room home in the upscale community of Greenwich, Connecticut, and was living in a 2300-square-foot home in New York when ...

....Rogers’ project could be completed this year, realizing a lifelong dream. “I’ve never been comfortable with a lot of empty unused space,’’ she says. “I’m just not comfortable having a dining room that is used once a year.”

If McMansions were the trademark of the overindulgent ’80s and ’90s, the not-so-big house may be the symbol of a generation that is slowing down, considering the earth’s resources and doing what it can to preserve them. Consider this: a 2008 survey by the National Association of Home Builders shows that more than 60% of potential homebuyers would rather have a smaller house with more amenities than the other way around. And homebuilders such as KB Home, Warmington Homes and John Laing Homes are shrinking floor plans and offering smaller, less costly houses according to published reports. In a Chicago Tribune story in December 2008, Tom Stephani, a longtime homebuilder and the president of the McHenry County Home Builders Association, declared the “big house is dead.’’ .....