Living Large

Last Friday's Wall Street Journal reported on Jim Ferraro's 23,000 square-foot home on Martha's Vineyard's West Chop. It's stirred a lot of reactions, pro and con. The reader comments make hay about his trial lawyer riches and political affiliations.

 

The house porn stats include: $27 million to build, 61 rooms, 14 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, pool; basketball, tennis and bocce courts, putting green . . . all shoe-horned on 2.68 waterfront acres.

In an earlier article in Martha's Vineyard Magazine, the builder Gary Maynard of Holmes Hole Builders said:

"It’s very difficult to limit size or to control aesthetics without a real fight that involves a landowner’s basic rights. The question is really whether large homes have a net negative impact on the community, and what can be done to mitigate that impact. The first step in mitigation is to define exactly what is objectionable: Is it an aesthetic problem? Is it environmental impact? Is it cultural impact? These are all important issues that have very complex roots, legal and social ramifications, and some very personal answers."

By comparison, the new Martha's Vineyard Hospital which opened in 2011 has 24 rooms, is 90,000 square feet, and cost $48 million.