Despite the best efforts of the neighbors and most of the City Council, the two monster houses on the corner of 29th and Garfield Street NW got built after all. According to the office of obscenely-large-house broker Marc Fleisher, the rear house is under contract and will close at the end of the month (the “No McMansions!” signs across the street will make for a nice welcome) and the not-yet-completed one will go on the market when it’s finished.

In one way, the aggrieved neighbors are correct: The two houses, with seven and five bedrooms, are in pretty terrible taste. But the really offensive thing isn’t the size, or even the loss of mature trees that used to surround the smaller brick colonial on the site. If those buildings held five apartments or condos each, they would be perfectly fitting additions to a neighborhood that’s becoming more urban by the year—-and, I would think, even more profit for the developer! Instead, we get a crowded-looking corner that’s nearly empty of new residents, which is a loss to everyone involved.