Conn. Home 20-times Larger Than Average

[tvu_srfan]

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - The enormity of the house Arnold Chase is building on Avon Mountain isn't fully apparent from the outside, where only 17,000 square feet of it lies in plain view.

It's the two-level, 33,500-square-foot basement complex, complete with a 103-seat movie theater, ticket booth, concession stand, game room and music annex, that will make it New England's largest occupied single-family home.

At nearly 50,900 square feet, the Chase home will be slightly larger than billionaire Bill Gates' home in Washington, about 4,000 square feet smaller than the White House and 20 times larger than the average-size home in America.

The average U.S. home measures about 2,500 square feet — up from 1,995 square feet in 1988 — according to the National Association of Home Builders. But while houses are getting bigger, rarely are they built as big as the new Chase house.

"What you're talking about is mega homes," said Gopal Ahluwalia, the home builders association's vice president for research. "There are few homes larger than 50,000 square feet."

The brick and stucco colonial can be seen easily from the road. But the Hartford-based businessman, who plans to vacate a comparatively tiny 8,900-square-foot home when he moves, doesn't want too many people to know about it. He refused an interview and had a freelance photographer seeking permission to photograph the house for The Associated Press cited for trespassing.

Besides the two-tiered movie theater, soda fountain and men's and women's bathrooms, the Chase home will include a 400-square foot "observatory," five bedrooms, eight full bathrooms and five half bathrooms, according to documents filed with the West Hartford planning office. The game room, in the "upper" basement, will take up nearly 4,900 square feet — nearly twice as big as the average-size house.

"It's the same thing as why people buy a $150,000 car when the same function can be performed by a $25,000 car," Ahluwalia said. "I can afford it. I can have it. I want to have the biggest house in the world. Things like that."

Some question the morality of building a private home that large.

"Do you actually need to have that amount of space to live a good life?" said Susan A. Eisenhandler, a sociology professor at the University of Connecticut. "There are homeless people. There are impoverished people. There are serious social concerns, and we're not addressing that."

The only single-family residential structures in New England larger than Chase's are two mansions in Newport, which are now museums and no longer occupied.

The largest private home ever built in the United States is the Biltmore House in Asheville, N.C., comprising more than 174,000 square feet. Also on the national list are the 109,000-square-foot Oheka Castle in Huntington, N.Y., and Donald Trump's 80,000-square-foot Maison de l'Amitie in Palm Beach, Fla.

The Chase house was designed by Allan Greenberg's architectural firm in New York, which has worked on notable projects at the White House, State Department and the Holocaust Memorial in New York. The firm declined to comment.

Edited September 2, 2007 by tvu_srfan

[kafka]

sick

[kafka]

is this the dude who is a banker?

[Norseman82]

Why would you need a ticket booth for your own movie room?

[homeschoolmom]

Glottony

[CatherineM]

My husband and I were just talking about how the houses have gotten so much larger at a time when we are having fewer children. It just gives us more room to store more material things. Maybe if there was a law that you could only have a house of so many square feet per person. If you want the McMansion, you have to adopt or have more kids. I believe in voluntary simplicity and being content with just "enough."

[XIX]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' post='1376540' date='Sep 2 2007, 08:55 PM']Glottony[/quote]
Definitely. :-\

[kateri05]

[quote]Why would you need a ticket booth for your own movie room?[/quote]

ditto. this was EXACTLY my first question

[Resurrexi]

If it was moral for Catholic kings and queens to build great palaces, I don't see how what this man is doing is wrong. Though those kings and queens did build chapels in their palaces, and this man doesn't seem to be building a chapel as part of his house.

[kateri05]

[quote]If it was moral for Catholic kings and queens to build great palaces, I don't see how what this man is doing is wrong.[/quote]

i think its "wrong" in the sense that it is insanely materialistic. if you want to build a huge house for your 11 kids and all your relatives, awesome. if you want to build a huge house for you and your wife and kid.... why do you want a huge house?

[Totus Tuus]

[quote name='Norseman82' post='1376536' date='Sep 2 2007, 07:51 PM']Why would you need a ticket booth for your own movie room?[/quote]

To pay off the house.

[Lil Red]

because it's a status symbol - just like fancy cars, flashy jewelry and expensive clothes

[Mercy me]

I can't figure out why anyone would want a place that big.

[Dreamweaver]

The priest at Mass yesterday talked about this house as being a symbol of pride. The ironic thing is that this a church located in a country club with a number of nice houses. My dad was joking that the message that some parishoners (sadly) got out of it was to call their contractors and architects....

I still can't get over having 13 bathrooms....

[goldenchild17]

[quote name='Dreamweaver' post='1376954' date='Sep 3 2007, 11:32 AM']The priest at Mass yesterday talked about this house as being a symbol of pride. The ironic thing is that this a church located in a country club with a number of nice houses. My dad was joking that the message that some parishoners (sadly) got out of it was to call their contractors and architects....

I still can't get over having 13 bathrooms....[/quote]

Well if you had a house that big would you want to walk all the way to the other end just to go to the restroom?