I do think they have an obligation to be pretty. Pretty things make people happy. It’s a contribution to the social project we’re all working on.

A walkable city, not that a McDonalds drive-thru is specifically part of that, should have greenery, places to hang out, and pretty buildings to look at. People should like being wherever they happen to be.

The main reason this McDonalds looks like this is austerity. At least I think so. Big gray cubes are cheap to build and easily templateable.