Why are Minneapolis area mansions so bland? (Minnetonka, Edina: house, landscaping)

[taysantanamama]

I think the nail has been hit right on the head several times. Minnesotans are neither impressed by dripping(tacky, seriously ugly)gold from the era of foreign kings(and dead italian fashion designers) nor do they try to choose to impress with it.

[Minnehahapolitan]

Originally Posted by Slig

No kidding, I think if I had $6,500,000 to blow on a mansion I'd probably just pay off the $110,000 left on my house and use the rest of the money to rehab 100 homes and commercial buildings in south Minneapolis. I'd leave the Powderhorn community looking squeaky clean for years to come

Otherwise, if you weren't such a cheapy about it, you could try and buy off the Lakewood cemetery, then use a thousand helicopters to transport it out to the country somewhere and then develop that land into multi-million dollar condos with water-sealed underground parking for all of your and your residents' exotic vehicles. With total respect to those who have passed on and are buried there, that chunk of land between Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet is worth a FORTUNE.

...except Lakewood is a city-asset. I say we take the Minikahda Club. They keep the club house, you and I develop the land.

[kuan]

Except that William McGuire guy. Friend of mine who does catering says he has this 2500 sq. ft. closet and a throne for himself.

[Slig]

Originally Posted by Minnehahapolitan

...except Lakewood is a city-asset. I say we take the Minikahda Club. They keep the club house, you and I develop the land.

Weren't all those old closed school buildings/properties that have been pawned off to the general public former city-assets?

[Minnehahapolitan]

Originally Posted by Slig

Weren't all those old closed school buildings/properties that have been pawned off to the general public former city-assets?

I always thought so. Apparently the school board overlooked the irony of selling public school buildings to charter schools.

[Haver]

Baroque's just not our thing. A guy spends five months a year with winter bleakness, the mind starts seeking out details in all of that monatonous landscape so it ends up appreciating all of the 50 shades of white and 150 shades of gray/brown, seeing the subtle, intricate textures in a tree without leaves or on the surface of a frozen pond. Very Buddah, you know. So you get an appreciation for the subtle (or bland, your choice of wording). Other parts of the country, the mind doesn't have to work as hard to find beauty, so the ornate stuff works. Here, it's is like a flashlight in the face when you've just woken up, its just too much for up here. We do beige, sorry, anything fancier makes us throw a blanket over our head.

Not going for a value judgement here, both are valid. Done right, like the Japanese do, bland becomes beauty, and done right, ornate becomes Mad King Ludwig's castle in Bavaria or the Vatican.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by kuan

Except that William McGuire guy. Friend of mine who does catering says he has this 2500 sq. ft. closet and a throne for himself.

Yeah, but McGuire is from Texas.

[kuan]

Originally Posted by Ben Around

Yeah, but McGuire is from Texas.

Oh, nevermind then. No wonder he didn't quite fit in. Might have been other things too, might have....

[Slig]

You make a decision yet acstr? As another suggestion you could always take the Foshay route and build a skyscaper with your name on it and then fill it with versace gold and jewels. That should allow you to appropriately entertain parties.

[Astron1000]

And just remember, money doesn't buy taste.