diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/build_environment.py b/lib/spack/spack/build_environment.py
index 3f2939609da8af75c0996b8d302ed26d5c6d9fb0..15fb943ca41fa91d23daa5bc2045d3b7550545e1 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/build_environment.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/build_environment.py
@@ -408,7 +408,8 @@ def get_rpaths(pkg):
 def get_std_cmake_args(cmake_pkg):
     # standard CMake arguments
     ret = ['-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=%s' % cmake_pkg.prefix,
-           '-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo']
+           '-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo',
+           '-DCMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE=ON']
     if platform.mac_ver()[0]:
         ret.append('-DCMAKE_FIND_FRAMEWORK=LAST')