sept états!

Badmansard now features bad mansards of seven states- Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Louisiana, California, and now Oregon.

Thanks reader J. for sending this mansard in Corvallis, Oregon. In St. Louis-is-a-small-town fashion, reader J. went to the same grade school as my kids. His sister lives in one of my favorite houses in St. Louis.

Please direct your yeux to some unique badmansard features. The top half of the mansard is quite box-like at almost a perfectly straight line. Also note the gentle flair of the mansard's bottom, the weirdly positioned drainpipes and teeny-tiny windows. The overgrown shrubbery draws unwelcome attention to the top-heavy mansard. And, when was the last time we saw a monochromatic white mansard?

Certainly the rest of you could get me some bad mansard pictures. Especially if you're in Ohio. I suspect there are some really bad mansards in Ohio. Nothing against Ohio. I just think it's cities are much like St. Louis and that therefore there are bad mansards.

Minnesota Twins

Minnesota Avenue near highway 55 off of Bates.

Two mini-mansards with bizarre vinyl siding additions. It took me FOREVER to track these down. I saw these from highway 55 for more than a year but never could get the car onto Minnesota to take a picture. Finally got it, although I stopped traffic on Minnesota and got some real mean looks from vehicles waiting behind me. Don't mess around with folks at Bates and Minnesota.

Mansard drive-thru banque

At what point does this mansard freak us out? When do we collectively cry "Pourquoi? what the f. is that?"

Perhaps it is an unwanted result of my success, but I like to think I've featured so many bad mansards that the reader really won't be shocked by any mansard. I like to think I've shown you everything. Recently I've even wondered if I was *gulp* running out of material.

And then I find this gem in my email in-box sent by Dan Consiglio from Chicago to my husband and forwarded to me, passed tenderly like a JPEG baton from runner to runner.

I think badmansard has conditioned us to expect such badmansardness from a bank and even a drive-through. But, holy mother of the mansard, WHY is there a window in the drive-through mansard? Dan thought change-counting trolls resided above the drive through. A youth hostel? The bank's safe?

Thanks again Dan. You're awesome and so is your BOOK (click here).

How about the rest of you? I have friends all over the country. Won't someone from outside of St. Louis and Chicago PLEASE send me a bad mansard? It's the only way I can top this monster (*note- there is an apartment building in Belleville rumored to be a mansard-upon-mansard mid-century modern.)

Trois random photographs

Top to bottom:

Amish or Mennonite at the Archgrounds. That wasn't their kid. The woman on the left is wearing Crocs.

Frightening bulk trash vignette in Webster Groves. The sign indicates the washer still works but for a broken belt. Ok, fine. But I really need a sign to explain why the two freaky black eyed babies are sitting atop the washer waving at passers-by.

On the bottom is a lovely yard on Flora at the corner of Klemm. LOVE IT. That yard is always well-kept and this tulip display is perfect each year. Tulips usually crap our after a year or two so I suspect the owners replant the bulbs each fall.

Gris? What do you think of the gray paint?

Not bad, but I know some of you brick purists will hate the paint.