Saturday, January 29, 2022

Abandoned mega mansion

I stumbled across an interesting video recently. Apparently an enormous mega-mansion – named the Peter Grant Mansion after its intended owner – was in the process of being built, then abandoned midway through construction after the financial crash of 2008. At 65,000 square feet, the structure is Canada's largest home (or largest ruin).


The person making this video walked through the falling-down building, filming and documenting as he went. Here's the description below the video: "Today, I'm taking a look at one of the world's largest abandoned mansions. It currently stands as Canada's largest mansion at 65,000 square feet and also happens to be completely left to the elements. I'm taking a look at what's left after a devastating financial crash from its former owner and also thoughtfully analyzing the true cost of this staggering, huge home. Last listed for sale at $25 million, there is nothing on the planet like this ultra modern, abandoned mansion."

The house, predictably, was stuffed with every luxurious amenity normally found in mega-mansions: two swimming pools, waterfall, observation lighthouse, small golf course, indoor boat garage, squash court, curved walls, floor-to-ceiling windows, etc.

Since the house is just standing there in a field, open to any miscreants eager to explore the structure and remove anything of value, it's a mess inside. Broken glass, graffiti, damage, destruction ... seeing this kind of vandalism on such a massive scale is crazy.

Walking through the interior is a study in desolation.

Not only is everything vandalized and crumbling, but apparently no efforts were even made to salvage the structure for its component parts. One claim says it would take $1 million to upgrade the structure and make it livable.

To be honest, I had mixed feelings about this video. On one hand, I'm not a fan of conspicuous consumption, and mega-mansions are the epitome of this wasteful trend. On the other hand, there's something extraordinarily sad about the situation. After spending so much time, money, and resources on construction, the building was abandoned when it was 70% complete, so the guy never even had a chance to live in it.

Don and I discussed the video, and he says it reminds him of a poem entitled "Ozymandias":

I met a traveler from an antique land,
Who said – "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert ... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
The gist of this poem is no matter how mighty the structures built by the most powerful of kings, with time even these turn to dust. I can certainly see how this verse applies to an abandoned mega-mansion. "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Watch the video and tell me your thoughts.

5 comments:

  1. Just imagine a thousand of these expensive mansions abandoned. That still wouldn't equal the $100 billion that the government lost to fraud from their covid relief funds.

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  2. People with more money than brains. Or taste, for that matter.

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  3. It is too bad that it couldn't have been repurposed as a resort.

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  4. I'm no authority on ascetic or architectural beauty but I can understand why this thing was abandoned. Man, that place is UUUUUUUGLY! My dog would not live in that, and he's dead.

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  5. Only a million to fix it up and make it livable?? I'd think it would take more than that!

    Yeah, it's ugly. And just . . . sad.

    Better to be content with joy and love enjoyed in a small home. As a recent grad I once worked for an interior designer. We staged huge model homes. It was then that I decided I'd never want a house like that. Better to have a small house on some pretty land.

    The same real estate crash that wrecked this mansion made it possible for our family to purchase the 10 acres we're on now. God is so good!

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