monster house

Canadian Slang

In Vancouver, a newly-built and very large, post-modern residence taking up nearly all of a city lot, often overshadowing neighbouring houses and usually in a bland stucco out-of-character with the older flavour of the neighbourhood. Monster houses began going up in the 1980s during the influx of new immigrants fleeing the PRC takeover of Hong Kong. The term was denounced by Chinese organizations as racist, since most houses being built this way were owned by Chinese. Originally limited to the city's West Side, they are now common throughout the suburbs and have no particular ethnic association, and the term has fallen into disuse as "politically incorrect"