Straight outta Compton- 3

Compton Avenue, north side of 44 behind SLU Medical School. Am I the only one who sings NWA's Straight outta Compton anytime I drive on Compton?

Weird house- looks like a nondescript 1880's building with a mansard smashed on the front. Plus new construction in the next door neighbor house. The whole scene is an architectural mismatch.

Below is the NWA video. It too is mismatched. Ice Cube and Dre talking of pimps, hoes and grabbing AK-47's of the shelf. HA!. Dre is now a successful producer and Cube starred in Friday, Barbershop and Are we there yet? (a badmarsard family favorite).

The Italians again

On Shaw Avenue in the Hill neighborhood (Italians). I think the front part used to be a storefront many years ago. Such an arrangement would allow the shopkeeper to live behind the store and maximize the parcel.

Pretty funky. I'd date the original mansardette to the 1890's and the front piece to the 1920's. I base this opinion on the brick color, the facade of the front unit and my make-it-up-as-i-go-along expertise.

Combien de maisons?

Driving down Sidney today on the way back from Tower Grove Park. The fire department had Sidney closed off, forcing me to detour and, voila, find this doozie.

Very strange double wide unit, 3 story mansard to the left, sans mansard to the right. Originally, was this one house? Two houses? Where did the other mansard roof go? What's with the portion of the sad building that juts out? Does the decorative detail at the top continue all the way across? John and I debated this.

He says/she says:

John: This was two buildings joined by bricking the gangway that would have existed between the two buildings. It looks like there are side entrances so it's unlikely that center door is the original. Also, the foundations are different and there appears to be brick 'seams' on either side of the center window, suggesting the center section was bricked in later.

Kristan: I think it was a huge house with one mansard roof and for some reason (tornado?) the right side came off. It was rebuilt with just one side. After all, why would you brick in a gangway and add a second floor? WHat do you gain from that, another 20 square feet? And if the early homeowners bricked over a gangway, wouldn't the brick be much, much different? I also think the frieze above the windows continues across the entire building.

At Ohio and Shenandoah. I guess I could look up the city records or look closer at the basement level. What do you think?

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.)

Parc de Janvier et Arsenal

St. Louis Parks Department facility at Sublette Park at January and Arsenal. Is this the Hill? What is it with the Italians and bad mansards?

Mansard Garage Deux

Here we are in Lafayette Square, St. Louis' premier collection of Second Empire Victorians. And this garage. Near Sqwires on 18th. One of Kay's friends lives near this garage and I honestly hadn't noticed it until read Matt pointed it out to me. D'oh!

Sidenote 1: can we PLEASE stop butchering the spelling of restaurants with random numbers and misplaced letters? Sqwires. Fi5teen. Backward "7".

Sidenote 2: I hate restaurants with names like churches and churches that sound like restaurants. A church should be named for a saint or religious event and/or its denomination and location (Third Baptist, Webster Methodist, etc).

Mansard de l'électricité

Oui, this is a mansard protective covering of an electrical substation in the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans. Merci graduate etudiant Matthieu!

Mansard pour la voiture

Being a parking lot owner must be hard.  There are the obvious issues- security, maintenance, advertising and taxes.  And the more complex issues- those pesky urban preservationists who have valid-but-annoying reasons that the historic building shouldn't be knocked down to pave your crappy parking lot.  And the antitrust collusion inquiries by states' attorneys general.  Finally, can you find an attendant who won't sell crack from the booth? (see article here)

Assume you have all of those issues under control with your parking lot.  Let's say you really want your parking lot to look classy so you add a touch of 1880's Second Empire Victorian.  A mansard parking lot!  This photo is located in Alameda, California and courtesy of reader Paul at Vanishingstl.

Ma maison!

My house.  A good looking mansard if I do say so myself.  It's a little unusual for a mansard. The top window is rare.   I've researched the house and believe that the third story/mansard was added on after the home's original build date of 1884.  My husband's third floor studio features a chimney- not a stack, but a chimney.

We also have quatre sides on our mansard.  Most of the local mansard roof lines are only seen on the front elevation and wrap just a little around to the sides; the roof is usually flat and slopes to the back to a single gutter.  My mansard wraps around the entire house and the gutters are integated in the brick on all four sides creating 

the most complicated, expensive and f-ed up gutter system encountered by local gutter experts.

 

 Here is a rear view, including the AC unit which by code has to be non-visible from the street.