Mother Talkers

Arson Destroys Homes on Street of Dreams

by janetle

Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 01:35:41 PM PDT

I have never submitted a diary before but I thought I'd try.  This is the big news in our area today.  Every year in the Seattle area, builders create a neighborhood of big fancy homes fully decorated and furnished for people to tour.  The houses are then sold for millions of dollars.  The 2007 Street of Dreams homes were torched and three were completely destroyed the night before last.  A banner was found stating the ELF or Earth Liberation Front was responsible.

http://www.king5.com/...

Last summer my daughter and I toured the homes that were burned.  I wanted ideas for the bathrooms we are redoing and I took several pictures.  In fact, I am copying some of the tile designs.  Also, they were advertised as "green" construction.  My daughter and I were completely unconvinced about the green constrction given the size of the houses and the sensitive wetland area where they were built.  My 19 year old daughter was also highly critical of the gender stereotypes of the decorated girls' and boys' bedrooms.  But I still thought it was fun to see big dream homes that we will never live in.

Because of the housing market, the homes have remained completed, unsold and empty since last August.  In the past, the Street of Dreams homes have sold immediately.  Needless to say, this has sparked some speculation that ELF is a convenient scape goat and perhaps.....well, you get the idea.

Obviously, this is a terrible crime and it needs to be fully investigated.

Are these types of Street of Dreams promotions materialistic and hurtful to the environment?  Should we have even gone on the tour? Can mcmansions ever be considered "green" even if they use some environmentally friendly products?  The admission price did go to charity.  And what about the fact they were destroyed in such an egregious way?  Thoughts?

Tags: ecoterrorism, arson, green construction, ELF, mcmansions (all tags)

Permalink | 11 comments

  • my first question: (0 / 0)

    How much do these homes sell for?

    Second question: you said ticket fees went to charity. Who took the profits from the home sales themselves? The builders?

    by Erika on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 01:37:57 PM PDT

    • About 2 million each (0 / 0)

      It is my understanding that the developers and builders take the profits from the actual sales of the homes.

      This year the homes were scaled down as compared to previous years.  Instead of 11,000 square feet, they were more like 4000 or 5000.

      by janetle on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 01:54:07 PM PDT

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      • WOW. (0 / 0)

        To me, 4,000 square feet is HUGE! And they consider that scaled back. Funny.

        I guess I'm not feeling too badly for these builders. I am sure they were insured up the wahzoo, and they will be fine.

        It does seem egregious to be building these showcase homes at a time when so many people are losing their homes. Still, I must admit I LOVE looking at model homes...it's nice to dream.

        by Erika on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 02:05:33 PM PDT

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  • I don't think mass destruction (0 / 0)

    is ever a green thing to do.

    Whatever damage was done to that site will just be done again.

    I don't think touring it was a bad thing to do.

    I don't know enough about the development to have much opinion. 4,000 sf is a large house, but sf alone does not tell the story. As I've come to appreciate while looking at architectural drawings, all sf is not created equal - for example, stairs count twice, so 2-story houses always come out worse than 1-story, even if they use less footprint.

    Greenness is about lifecycle, not one data point. I am skeptical of all kinds of "green" materials - recycled this or sustainably harvested that - because to me what's more important is how long the lifecycle will be. Sustainably harvested hardwood is not a win if it's replaced every 10 years, either due to wear or whim.

    Similarly, one would have to view these houses within the big picture to understand. How much energy do they consume? Do its owners drive an hour each way in two separate cars every day? How has/will the wetland be affected?

    But burning things - as ELF has done before - is never a green answer. I'm sure the wetland did not appreciate all the fire equipment and all the chemicals that were released into it.

    by shenanigans on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 02:27:11 PM PDT

  • Something similar in DC (0 / 0)

    Once a year, designers take over a huge house somewhere in the DC area and redesign each room to the hilt.  Then they charge admission for a month, and you can tour it.  Its a fundraiser for the National Symphony Orchestra.  I went once.  It was packed and crowded, they wouldn't let me bring the baby in, and the house was so absurdly ostentatious that it was laughable.  But it was also incredibly wasterful--at the end of the month, the designs were undone, unless the owner paid for them.  Lots of ridiculous stuff thrown away, I'm sure.  Bah.

    I wouldn't burn the house down, though.

    by tessajp on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 03:36:33 PM PDT

    • This was five luxury homes (0 / 0)

      They tried to burn them all down but three were destroyed and one other damaged.  I love my Seattle coffee but these houses had built in espresso machines in the bedrooms, family rooms and the kitchens.

      Also, before the homes were built, there were lawsuits based on environmental issues to prevent the development---like septic tank leakage and wetland damage.

      Another link:

      http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/...

      by janetle on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 03:47:16 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

      • I know a barista (0 / 0)

        (that's a fancy coffee maker person, right?) who had to get fancy coffee machinery for her home so she wouldn't have to go to her workplace for her six shots/per day caffeine fix.

        Sometimes it makes sense to own stuff. Of course, a barista isn't gonna be able to afford a house like these...

        by tarantula on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 04:18:51 PM PDT

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    • I remember the This Old House (0 / 0)

      recently, where they owned the house. I loved it - until they let the designers loose to "furnish" it. Eeeew. All that beautiful carpentry on the windows and other places was now covered with ugly "window treatments".

      And then there's those houses that HGTV gives away each January. The designers even buy knicknacks for the shelves. I mean, c'mon... is there anyone who doesn't already have too many?

      by shenanigans on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 10:36:02 PM PDT

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      • When I win it (0 / 0)

        I'm having a huge garage sale - you can join me for beers on my deck and help me label all those designer knick knacks for sale!

        "Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight. Gotta kick at the darkness til it bleeds daylight"

        by lonestar canuck on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 11:50:10 AM PDT

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  • there is nothing "green" (0 / 0)

    about homes in a street of dreams style, not matter how much they profess to use green materials or whatever.  The immensity of their footprint and use of energy to keep up and running speak to their unsustainable nature. what about 'landscaping'.  are there lawns?  they are symptoms of conspicuous consumerism. (an older book "Affluenza" speaks to this). To be truly committed to sustainable and green practices, consumptions must be addressed.
    living in OR, I thought the news that they'd burned and ELF was found there was interesting.  I didn't know that they had also been unoccupied for so long.  Very interesting! I did hear on the news that the investigation was going very slowly to ensure that all evidence was found and considered.  So, maybe you aren't the only one to wonder if the ELF thing was a smokesreen.

    "The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution." Paul Cezanne

    by educonfidential on Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 10:50:40 PM PDT

    • Good comment (0 / 0)

      And yes--when I first heard the news and saw the video of the raging fires, I thought for sure they were talking about new homes under construction for the 2008 Street of Dreams.  

      Seattle has one of these every year and they have for 20 years!  Finding the ELF banner then made sense to me---that they were trying to stop a new development from completion. (As horrific as this is as a form of protest.)

      But then, I realized it was LAST year's neighborhood that was destroyed.  I couldn't believe none of the homes had been sold and that all five were empty--sitting there all furnished, landscaped and everything since mid-August 2007.

      by janetle on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 07:47:06 AM PDT

      [ Parent ]

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