Home design trend simply means living to eat
By Sharon Stangenes
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Like the proliferation of cupholders in autos and fast-food outlets on highways, more opportunities for snacking and casual dining are being built into today's new homes.
Builders say it's just a reflection of modern lifestyles, but obesity experts call the trend downright dangerous to the health of Americans.
A minimum of two eating areas — a casual dining space and breakfast bar in the kitchen and a separate room or space for formal dining — are "must haves" in surveys of new-home buyers. But many developers and builders are offering far more.
A model for Concord at the Glen in Glenview, Ill., for example, had a food preparation island in the kitchen that can be used as a breakfast bar and a casual dining area for lunch. A butler's pantry might be used to prepare cocktails and hors d'oeuvres for serving in the living room before dinner in the formal dining room. In the master suite's sitting room, a mini-bar provides for a midnight or early morning snack. And eating in the family room is as common as watching television.
As if that's not enough to bust your buttons, some home buyers convert a second-floor room into a second family room with a mini-refrigerator. The builder said basements can include a wet bar, depending upon the community, while patios, decks or walkout basements add outdoor dining options.
"Eating is so diverse and we have so many different types of families today that we offer many eating opportunities," said Roger Mankedick, executive vice president of Palatine, Ill.-based Concord Homes.
This emphasis on eating convenience in all parts of the house disturbs those trying to curtail the nation's growing girth.
"This is a move in the wrong direction," said Dr. Robert Kushner, medical director of Northwestern Memorial Wellness Center in Chicago.
Kushner said such home-design trends are "architecturally enabling" people who are battling weight problems. He finds it appalling for a minibar to be built in a second-floor family room to save someone from walking downstairs to the kitchen.
"It's not a healthy change," said Kushner, a physician and nutritionist who, with nurse practitioner Nancy Kushner, co-authored "Dr. Kushner's Personality Type Diet" (St. Martin's Press, $23.95).
While not all new-home buyers opt for the bedroom breakfast bar, architect Salvatore Balsamo said snack stations are everywhere.
"We are seeing a lot of minikiosks in a home ..., more equipped bars in the family room and in the master suite," said Balsamo, of Balsamo, Olson & Lewis Ltd. in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.
"I think this has been evolving over the last several years."
The trend has been bolstered by the miniaturization of appliances, which can be hidden in niches or furniture anywhere in the house, Balsamo said.
Kitchens take up about 13 percent of the total floor space of a 2,300-square-foot house, the average size of the U.S. house built in 2001.
Meanwhile, "the line between the kitchen, family room and the breakfast room is becoming very fuzzy," said Stephen Moore, partner in charge of marketing for Bloodgood Sharp Buster, a Des Moines-based national architecture firm.
"We are beginning to see two kitchen islands," said Moore, of a trend in California and the Southwest. One island is used for food preparation, the second "for eating and social interaction."
Eating locations within the home are proliferating "because of the lifestyles we live now," said Bob Riccio, Chicago director of sales and marketing for Malvern, Pa.-based Realen Homes.
"Casual eating has become very popular," he said.
"We recognize that people are eating in just about every part of the house and we try to accommodate that."
