He greeted me with, "I think this town needs a giant chicken. People could climb to an observation tower on the beak, and T-shirts could be sold below."
Of course, I immediately grasped the brilliance of this big-bird, tourist attracting idea. Rich and I both know that our town's number one tourist attraction is a submarine. "But it's half under water", Rich observed.
Our number two attraction is an oversize, fiberglass cow in front of the dairy. It's more of a lawn ornament on steroids than a genuine tourist destination. Big, plastic cows are a dime a dozen in Wisconsin. The town of Neillsville has our cow trumped. Their cow, Chatty Belle, TALKS to her visitors.
Rich is not fixated on giant chickens. He feels that "anything that is obscenely big and makes people laugh" will do. I would add that the giant whatever-it-is also should be interactive.
My three favorite wacko buildings in a similar vein are:
- Randy's Big Donut on Melrose Ave next to the Los Angeles airport
- The Owl Cafe in Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Lucy, The Elephant Building, in Margate, New Jersey
Architectural historians call these buildings roadside vernacular architecture. Rich and I just call them fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment