Architect's Leap

If you're feeling like a jerk,

'cause your project just won't work,

Go ahead, and take the leap,

Then you'll finally get some sleep.

Burma Shave.

Here is the view lying face-up on the 3^rd floor of Wean, the terminal end of Architect's Leap.

The bottom of this stairwell is often "decorated" by students. Although no one has actually committed suicide this way, a chalk outline was drawn. People have dropped packing peanuts, computer equipment and anything worthy of being crushed under Gallagher's Sledge-O-Matic.

Several segments of the railing near the bottom are bent (for example, in the lower left of this image), presumably from the inevitable collisions. And that person peering out from the fifth floor is indeed an architect, perhaps pondering why she chose that major.

In case you're curious; Burma-Shave produced shaving cream and advertised with roadside jingles. These jingles were split into a series of signs and placed along roads. The rhyme usually referred to shaving or driving and the final sign was always the company name.

Here's a typical jingle: "Late risers! Shave in just. 2 minutes flat. Kiss your wife. Grab your hat. Burma-Shave." You can get a random jingle from the archive.

These advertisements became an American icon and mainstays of roadtrips nation-wide. In 1963 the company was sold to Phillip Morris and the signs were removed. A year later, one set was donated to the Smithsonian Institution.