Big fish eat smaller fish

and even BIGGER FISH eat the big ones.  
Don't you just hate it when this happens in your neighborhood?

The site of the planned 85,000-square-foot estate of Prince Abdulaziz 
bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. Cameron Davidson

In Los Angeles, a Nimby Battle Pits Millionaires vs. Billionaires

New York Times, December 5, 2014  By Peter Haldeman


Built for the most part on spec, bestowed with names as assuming as their dimensions, these behemoths are transforming once leafy and placid neighborhoods into dusty enclaves carved by retaining walls and overrun by dirt haulers and cement mixers. “Twenty-thousand-square-foot homes have become teardowns for people who want to build 70-, 80-, and 90,000-square-foot homes,” Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz said. So long, megamansion. Say hello to the gigamansion.

In a city traditionally as hostile to architectural preservation as it is hospitable to architectural innovation, the gigamansion trend is accelerating the decimation of residential gems. A midcentury modern home in Bel Air designed by Burton Schutt (best known as the architect of the Hotel Bel-Air) and furnished by the decorator Billy Haines for Earle Jorgensen, a member of President Ronald Reagan’s “kitchen cabinet,” and his wife, Marion, was recently razed by the action-movie director Michael Bay and replaced with a three-story 30,000-square-foot dwelling with two master bedrooms and a movie-prop museum.

In the Sunset Strip area, a geometric hacienda built by the Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta for the actor Ricardo Montalbán was “remodeled” into a hulking glass spec house. “We’re losing a vast amount of significant architecture and historical or contextual buildings in our neighborhoods,” said Linda Dishman, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

As the number of Los Angeles’s buildable lots dwindles and land values soar, houses that are out of scale with their surroundings are popping up everywhere. (According to a recent account in The Los Angeles Times, residents of McMansion-checkered North Beverly Grove have been registering their disapproval by spray-painting construction fences and festooning them with bags of dog feces.) City ordinances intended to keep building sizes proportional to lot dimensions are riddled with loopholes.

While global wealth is pouring into other American cities as well, Los Angeles is still a relative bargain, Mr. Hyland said, adding: “Here you can buy the best house for $3,000 a square foot. In Manhattan, you’re looking at $11,000 a square foot and you get a skybox.”

“We weren’t even aware of how much development had been approved over the counter,” said Mr. Koretz, who recently introduced measures to limit exemptions, develop more proactive inspections and require environmental review for homes over a certain size.