Denver Parade of Homes Disappointing

August 28, 2005. The Denver version of the Parade of Homes is becoming more irrelevant every year, at least from the standpoint of being a showcase of new technology in the home. A few years ago, visitors would be assured of seeing some of the latest gadgets available for home use at the annual presentation of the state of the art in home building presented by the local building association.

No more.

This year's 20th anniversary show continues the trend toward grossly expensive, overdone mansions that have little relevance to anyone but people who want to spend large amounts of money for ostentatious, uninspired buildings in increasingly remote areas. On the plus side, they are almost always next to a golf course.

The current show is located at an area called "Pradera", which is located 6 or 7 miles northeast of Castle Rock, Colorado. Pradera, Spanish for "prairie", doesn't really live up to its name, being more of a valley surrounded by gently rolling hills covered with scraggly vegetation. It's not quite desert, but it's headed that way.

Nestled in the middle of Pradera, along the golf course, is the site of the Parade, seven sprawling homes, clustered loosely around a cul-de-sac. They range in price from 1.6 million dollars and up - way up. While walking through each home, I couldn't help but wonder what the designers and builders were thinking. The use of space was strange indeed, with some configurations that defied explanation. Obviously, this caters to the whims of the future owners, who must be confused indeed to flush a wad of cash on these disasters.

But enough about the mundane subjects of floor plans and home furnishings. I was there to see technology, and I must say there was precious little. In prior years, for example, most kitchens had mini-offices in them or nearby, which generally contained a networked computer. But apparently that fashion is no longer in vogue, because were no desks in the kitchens anymore. Espresso bars, yes. Desks, no. Not only that, but there were few, if any flat panel monitors, which were a big feature of last year's kitchens. Here's a rundown of my observations:

• Ugly plastic plates on walls are the big design feature this year. No matter what color the wall was, most of the homes had large numbers of white plastic plates containing electrical outlets and controls of some kind, mostly light switches. One house had little LCD screens, but they where taped over so I couldn't see what they where. Besides looking cheap and ugly, none could be described as high-tech. In the past, sophisticated computerized controls could be found in every room, some with cameras, intercoms, and computer screens. No more.
• Perhaps they don't get cable TV in Pradera, because it didn't appear as if any of the houses were wired for it. Normally, you see combination cable/phone outlets in every room of new houses, but the only ones I found this year were cable-only outlets behind flat panel screens hanging on the walls. They may be depending on wireless phones, which probably would work. Even wireless networks would work fairly well as long as they aren't planning to distribute anything fun, like video. But wireless broadband is not available in Colorado yet, so I doubt they were planning on using it. I did see a couple of Wireless-G routers in basements, which shows a lack of sophistication on the part of the installers because there is no way they will get coverage throughout these huge buildings from there.
• Last year there were high-tech boxes with names like Microsoft and Motorola on display in basements and garages, trumpeting household networking and control systems. I didn't see any this year.
• At previous Parades, high-tech security gadgets were installed at several houses. They ranged from automatic window shutters to computerized climate controls, security cameras, and gate openers. Right, none this year. Apparently even smoke detection is out of fashion, as one of the homes burnt to the ground 60 days before the Parade was to start.
• Technology has apparently deserted the kitchen. Once again, the newest electronic item in most kitchens a built-in coffee/espresso maker. Gone were the computerized refrigerators with UPC scanners and LCDs with Internet on the doors. The people who buy these houses probably hire people to shop and cook anyway, so let them use paper and pencil.
• At least there was some hope in the entertainment area. One home theatre room had an HDTV digital projector. Unfortunately, it was hooked up to a DVD player that made the picture look ordinary.
• Built "Green" was a big deal in previous parades. This year, conservation and efficiency have become four-letter words, as conspicuous consumption and yesterday's wasteful technology took the main stage.

There were plenty of other areas where I would have expected people with money would have wanted to make use of the latest technology, but it wasn't there.

Remember Tomorrowland? They weren't even up to that standard from the 1957 Monsanto Home of the Future. There were no picture phones, no computerized temperature controls, virtually no technological innovations of any kind. These houses could have been built 25 years ago and had the same technology.