February 2002 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

This is the front of a Mt. Vernon, Ohio, drinking establishment. Notice the pains they took to simulate the look of stucco delaminating over brick. The conventions of architectural ornament are completely forgotten in Heartland America. Here, they are evidently going for a look of cartoon "antiquity." Nice window proportioning, too. The result is a wholly original (and successful) evocation of squalor.