What It’s Like Working in a Building Shaped Like a Hot Dog

The Big Shoe is one of a shrinking number of examples of what’s called mimetic architecture—structures that look like the thing they sell, akin to visual onomatopoeia. The style took off in the 1920s, and the subsequent “roadside attraction” era saw hundreds or even thousands of buildings across the US built in the shape of coffee pots, cameras, ice cream cones and the like aiming to lure motorists. Visitors to Orlando may have passed the hemispheric Orange World on a strip of motels and trinket shops near the entrance to Disney World. Ohioans can detour from Interstate 70 to marvel at a seven-story-tall picnic basket. And about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, freshly fried confections await at the Donut Hole, a drive-thru where you enter and exit via a pair of treats.