I want to know more about the 'architect' at Jack in the Box and how he determined how heavy-handed his use of the mansard would be. As you can see, the mansard on the left at Kingshighway/Chippewa is more severe than its cousin at Gravois/Russell. Did he have a drinking problem? A love/hate relation with the mansard? Did he (or she) get called out for being crazy enough to go 50-50% on the roofline proportion and subsequently lighten up? Or did he start with the style on Gravois and progress to the 50/50 roof, just like a drug addict gateways from pothead and to heroin addict?
Or, more likely, the Gravois Jacques didn't start as a Jacques. By the way, did we all know Gravois actually means Road to the Dump in French? That's true.
Re: Gravois- I've lived in St. Louis for most of my life and it wasn't until a few years ago I really got comfortable with Gravois, which is confusing as it meanders on a weird diagonal and has so many jaywalkers that I deem it the official Frogger of St. Louis streets.
IT took me a long time to grasp Gravois myself (yes, road to the dump...which it was, or at least road to the clay mines). I could never figure out how roads crossed it in what order, for instance (why Cherokee seemed so much further away than Compton, stuff like that). And I hate how the landscape becomes increasingly grim the closer a given street gets to GRavois. Grand especially.
ReplyDeleteI vote for drinking problem because it made me laugh.