"The Great Room" WTF?

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As a child of the '80s I do not have first-hand experience of these so-called "great rooms." In my suburban house, we had/have a living room (which is a bit of a swindle in itself, as this room tends to be kinda fancy and for guests mainly, not for 'living') and the family room--where the TV was/is and where you could play with your friends and do whatever else.

When my cousin bought a house, she referred to one room as the "great room." Where did this term come from? Who made it up? Why? And isn't it sort of snobby to refer to a room in your house as the great room. I thought the term meant just a big room that the kitchen looked out on. But, I just went to visit my friend's newly bought house, and her great room is like a two-story loft (I thought that a bed should be hanging over it on the side.) Her great room is actually kinda nice bc it has these extremely large square windows which show copious trees and light. But really, why? Why great rooms? Why do people need them? What are they for?

When I visited Falling Water the guide said that the ceilings were sort of low bc FLW felt houses should be more compact and intimate. What is the deal with these cathedral rooms? Did you grow up with a house with a great room? Do you possess a house with a great room now? Are any houses being built without the great room these days? Tell me your stories. Indeptedly,

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 11 July 2005 22:44 (twenty years ago)

"At my house, well, one of my houses..." Incidentally, what does indeptedly mean? Do you have a cold?

― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 11 July 2005 22:48 (twenty years ago)

OK, I kind of get the idea of the "great room" for multi-use settings, an open floor plan is very Wrightian in itself, but why does it have to be 2 floors high? I am trying to research the etomology--this article compares great rooms to the medieval hall:

http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2004/10/trend_watch_the.html

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 06:16 (twenty years ago)

A GREATER ‘GREAT’ ROOM
“These days, people don’t want the standard postwar Ozzie and Harriet house with the dining room, living room and three bedrooms,” Carter says. Instead, the living, family and dining rooms in new houses often morph into the great room – the largest room in the house, with areas for living, entertaining and dining.
The great room is not a new trend, exactly. But Carter and Royal Homes added a new twist by enlarging the great room to include the kitchen.

“What buyers really want now is loft-space living with one great big room that includes the kitchen, where everybody ends up anyway during a party,” Carter says. “I recently redid a kitchen for a wealthy client; it has a seven-by-12-foot island. He gave a party and there were a hundred people in the room. He told me later, ‘What am I doing with the rest of this huge house? I could rent it out.’ ”

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 06:32 (twenty years ago)

This guy keeps thinking about great rooms:

http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2005/02/trend_watch_gre.html

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 06:35 (twenty years ago)

And this woman is pioneering the not-so-big house movement, which sadly, results in houses that are neither not-so-small.

http://www.notsobighouse.com/

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 06:38 (twenty years ago)

McMansion analysis

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3225775/

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 06:44 (twenty years ago)

Meanwhile, in my beloved Annandale:

http://www.antisleep.com/archives/2004-05-07_0247.php

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 06:47 (twenty years ago)

update:

http://www.antisleep.com/archives/2004-06-01_0256.php

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 06:52 (twenty years ago)

Alternative names for McMansions and similar houses include Beltway Baronial, Starter Castle, Persian Palace, Tract Mansions and Faux Chateau; again, these are pejorative terms.

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 07:01 (twenty years ago)

two stories give one a sense of space that would otherwise not be possible due to do the relatively small lots most houses sit on.

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 07:06 (twenty years ago)

Suburban lofts:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2113614/

Some of these look pretty cool actaually. I can't see them sitting on a grassy subdivision though.

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 07:29 (twenty years ago)

Suburban lofts are essentially reworkings of this

http://www.pritzkerprize.com/johnson/IMG0020.jpg

with more privacy. Contemporary architecture for the last 50+ years has been doing the open floor plan and industrial materials thing. It's just now filtering down to the masses, perhaps.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 08:01 (twenty years ago)

I love the minimalist house style--I don't think of it as loft-style though; I mean, the floors are not usually two stories in height, or are they?

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 17:19 (twenty years ago)

Suburban lofts are basically reworkings of this:

http://www.hardwickhomes.com/cbgraph/suburban.jpg

― Brian Miller (Brian Miller), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

Except somehow they've managed to make them uglier:
http://img.slate.msn.com/media/1/123125/2079215/2112767/2113105/05_TN_IronWorksExteriors.jpg

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 17:36 (twenty years ago)

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