Another Reason to Hate Suburbia – Finding an Address
Today I went out to visit a loan officer I work with at Gorman & Gorman. Unfortunately for this city guy, they are located out in the Westport area. I had the address and knew where to go, 11960 Westline Industrial Drive.
I turn off of Westport Drive onto Westline and I see signage for the ‘12000 Building’:
I failed to notice the listing of Gorman & Gorman on the sign as I drove by. I get to the next building and see 11920. OK, I’ve missed it. Turning back I deduce that the 12000 Building must be located at 11960 – brilliant! Pulling into the parking lot I can barely make out from a distance the correct number on the awning at the entry. At lease urban buildings are close enough to the street that you can usually make out the street address.
So the building’s owner either decided the ‘11960 Building’ wasn’t a good building name or they couldn’t convince the post office to give them the street address 12000 Westline Industrial Drive.
Entering the building through the main entrance (above) I discover this is actually a three story building – you enter on floor two. I know this happens sometimes but it is just weird to enter a building on a floor other than one. Especially in a basically flat area. Yes, I realize the tenants on the ground floor want a suite number that sounds dignified so anything other than something like Suite 110 wouldn’t cut it.
I was so glad when my trip to suburbia was over and I was able to return to the city! It the city we don’t have address issues like the one above. Of course, we do have that one business located at One Jefferson Avenue yet no entrance on Jefferson (Note: this linked post from November 2004 contains lots of four letter words).
– Steve
I had to go out to Westport for a meeting last week. It is almost impossible to get to that place without using a car. I had to borrow a car just to go 15 miles from my office, just because of the way the highways are laid out.
Once you manage to find your way out to that area, you are immediately struck by the nondescript buildings that don’t appear to be built well enough to withstand a spring breeze. I can see how you could ge lost, b’c every place looks just like the place next to it.
Uggghhhh…I hate hvaing to go out to that area of town. It is depressing.
I had a similar experience in the Chicago ‘burbs. I needed to go to an office complex out in Arlington Heights. I had the address and the necessary bus route and figured that would be sufficient to find it, but I ended up getting off the bus in the wrong place because apparently all the little burbs out there have their own street numbering systems, meaning there are about a million different places with the address 400 Golf Road–so really, you do have to live there to know where you are. Add to this that those far-suburban busses only come once every half hour (if that) and that it started raining cold rain after I got off the bus, and I was one unhappy lady by the time I figured out what was wrong. After that day in the far far reaches of the universe, I gained a greater appreciation of the older inner-ring ‘burb where I lived at the time.
I used to work in that building. It’s as non-descript on the inside as it is on the outside. I still work in sprawl in a low, non-descript building. Sucks the life right out of you…
Oh, and glad to see a St. Louis blog.