The original bad mansard

 At the corner of Mansard and Union Road sits the mecca of bad mansards.  The street is called Mansard.  And- the kicker- the whole place is named the Monreale Condominiums.  

Come now- tout ensemble- avec your best accent Francais, dit "mon-ree- all."

Where to find such a classy place?  The intersection of Union and Reavis Barracks Road in south county, of couse, right behind the Shell Station.


Looks like the place has been spruced up a bit.  Roofs are updated and there is a companion mini-mansard in each back yard which is evidently the place to stick your satellite dish.

I find myself at 55/Reavis more often than I care to admit.  6th grade girl's soccer.  Out little city team has been placed in the south county team because there were only TWO teams of 6th grade CYC teams in the "open" division (meaning the team has club soccer players).  And there was only ONE city team in the "closed" division (no select players).  So instead of having a city league of just 3 teams, the CYC put us in south county.

Let's do the math.  That means there are only, at most, SIXTY or so sixth grade girls in the entire City of St. Louis who are playing CYC soccer.  Disclaimer- St. Roch plays in a county league so they probably have 20 or so playing too.  But still.  The numbers are screwed up. And sad because it's not just soccer.  It's basketball and softball and volleyball too.  Disappointing trend.  No one wants to be on a team anymore.  And I sure do hope the thousands of other sixth grade girls are doing something for exercise.

CYC divisions are supposed to be changing in Spring 2013.  There won't be a city division any more.  We will either merge with the South Central division (Mary Queen, Holy Redeemer, etc) or with South County.  So looks like I'll be driving either 44 or 55 a lot more to get to games.    And I hope I find some mansards along the way.

check out the sophisticated landing pad for the dish.

Here's Kay winding up.  She had two goals but this wasn't one of them. She was pissed she didn't have a hat trick.

Not Musick to my ears

On my way to a swimming meet in Sunset Hills, I spied this bad mansard perched atop a South County hill.  "NO MOM!" the kids shouted in unison as I turned around to get a picture.  This house is located on Musick Drive off of Gravois Road very close to Grant's Farm.  

That's what I pretty much did this week- drive back and forth on Gravois.  Not my usual geographic routine but at least I found another bad mansard.  

Grand Master Melle-Mehl

The lasest installment of the "on the way to volleyball"  mansards of South County, this one on Mehl road.  I suspect this Mehl is behind the municipal name of Mehlville.  In other exciting news, I went to the PetSmart and Sports Authority on Lemay Ferry just minutes after this photo was taken.  

Don't go back to Oakville

This is directly across from Oakville High School on Millburn Road in South County. My daughter Audrey is doing a volleyball clinic in the gym. I had never been to Oakville High School before. Getting down there (Mehl Road to Yaeger to Millburn) was like driving down the yellow brick road of bad mansards. They were every where.

In high school (Webster Groves class of 1989), we used to play against Oakville. I had very little school spirit, but one cheer I could always get behind was singing REM's Don't Go Back to Rockville as Don't Go Back to Oakville. Which really made no sense considering wouldn't you want the opposing team to eventually go back from where they came? Nonetheless, it was a cheer for the reluctant Statesman, especially since it was from REM's Reckoning, one of the last good albums before REM started to suck.

Une légende

And legendary this mansard is. (sorry if légende is masculine not feminine).

I saw a picture of this mansard years ago on a local St. Louis architecture/preservation page-- BELT? Commenters on that blog labeled this Cousin It. Perhaps the memory of this tres bad mansard stayed in my subconscious and years later motivated me to start badmansard. Am I right that this is a cinder block rectangle with a shingled mansard as tall as the building itself but for 8 inches on the bottom which might house Aquatech trolls?

If I had a crown of bad mansards, there would be four jewels: this one, the Hannibal Mullet mansard, Chicago drive-thru banque (more trolls live in its drive through roof/see window) and one more, a mansard that eludes me, the Belleville, IL mansard-a-mansard apartment building. The Bellevegas mansard is like the grail of mansards- one day I shall make the journey to Belleville to seek it in the name of bad architecture glory.

Speaking of art and architecture, thanks to my friend D. who sent me this picture. D. teaches art/architecture at Webster U. When I drive around town pointing a camera at houses and taking pictures, I worry I may get stopped or questioned. Instead of giving the "I write a blog" speech, I am going to lie and say I am in D's class and writing a paper on the mansard style.

Bad Mansard sur la Currine

This is on Cliff Cave Road in south county. It also has a funky little mansard addition.

How did I trouve la mansard? We went on a melanoma research walk at Cliff Cave Park (Our MOM foundation).

The morning was a triple win: supported a good cause, had a nice walk and found a bad mansard.

Joyeux Noël !

South County on Mattis Road off Tesson Ferry.

Quelque part en France F. Mansart roulement dans sa tombe*

The monstro-mansards apartment complexes at 55 and Union are legendary (in my mind anyway).  Reader/Brownie leader/electrical contractor superstar Emily was kind enough to send me the icing on the gateau:  La rue s'appelle Mansard. That's like naming your street "Gabled" or "Hipped."  Somewhere a French dude named Mansart is rolling in his grave.

Merci Emily!  

*I know this sentence has at least one error.

In case you weren't happy with the first group of apartments at HWY 55 and Union

Here's un autre mansard pour vous.  Have you heard of the 20/80 principle?  For instance, you wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time.  Or, 20% of the people in an organization perform 80% of the work.  Well, this apartment is 20% first floor, 80% mansard.  

Highway 55 and Union: where mansards go to breed

There's something about highway development that makes bad mansards multiply.   Here is not just one lone mansard, but an entire complex of bad mansards much in the style of the triple threat mansard featured in the header of this blog.  Triple threat=swiss chalet, split level, mansard.  Ironically, Jennifer Lopez just celebrated the one year birthday of her twins.  It's as if my original bad mansard on Brannon finally gave birth to fifty awkward bad mansardettes.