![]() ![]() Drive-ins had advanced car-oriented architectural design, as they were built with an expressive utilitarian style, circular and surrounded by a parking lot, allowing all customers equal access from their cars. Drive-in services such as diners, movie theaters and filling stations built with the same principles developed to serve the new American city. Streamline Moderne, much like Googie, was styled to look futuristic to signal the beginning of a new era – that of the automobile and other technologies. These buildings featured rounded edges, large pylons and neon lights, all symbolizing, according to Hess, "invisible forces of speed and energy", that reflect the influx of mobility that cars, locomotives and zeppelins brought. Hess writes that because of the increase in mass production and travel during the 1930s, Streamline Moderne became popular because of the high energy silhouettes its sleek designs created. This was achieved by using bold style choices, including large pylons with elevated signs, bold neon letters and circular pavilions. The new smaller suburban drive-in restaurants were essentially architectural signboards advertising the business to vehicles on the road. This modern consumer architecture was based on communication. This new trend required owners and architects to develop a visual imagery so customers would recognize it from the road. Instead of one main store downtown, businesses now had multiple stores in suburban areas. The suburbs offered less congestion by offering the same businesses, but accessible by car. With car ownership increasing, cities no longer had to be centered on a central downtown but could spread out to the suburbs, where business hubs could be interspersed with residential areas. Alan Hess, one of the most knowledgeable writers on the subject, writes in Googie: Ultra Modern Road Side Architecture that mobility in Los Angeles during the 1930s was characterized by the initial influx of the automobile and the service industry that evolved to cater to it. Googie's beginnings are with the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s. History Ĭlassic Googie sign at Warren, Ohio drive-in In his article he used the fictional Professor Thrugg's overly effusive praise to mock Googie, at the same time lampooning Hollywood, which he felt informed the aesthetic. Though Haskell coined the term Googie and was an advocate of modernism, he did not appreciate the Googie aesthetic. Haskell insisted on stopping the car upon seeing Googies and proclaimed "This is Googie architecture." He popularized the name after an article he wrote appeared in a 1952 edition of House and Home magazine. The name Googie became a rubric for the architectural style when editor Douglas Haskell of House and Home magazine and architectural photographer Julius Shulman were driving through Los Angeles one day. Googies was located at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights in Los Angeles but was demolished in 1989. Burton, the wife of the restaurant's original owner, Mortimer C. ![]() The name "Googie" had been a family nickname of Lillian K. The origin of the name Googie dates to 1949, when architect John Lautner designed the Googies Coffee Shop in Hollywood, which had distinct architectural characteristics. Some examples have been preserved, though, such as the oldest McDonald's stand (located in Downey, California). As with the Art Deco style of the 1910s–1930s, Googie became less valued as time passed, and many buildings in this style have been destroyed. These stylistic conventions represented American society's fascination with Space Age themes and marketing emphasis on futuristic designs. ![]() Googie was also characterized by Space Age designs symbolic of motion, such as boomerangs, flying saucers, diagrammatic atoms and parabolas, and free-form designs such as "soft" parallelograms and an artist's palette motif. įeatures of Googie include upswept roofs, curvilinear, geometric shapes, and bold use of glass, steel and neon. Similar architectural styles are also referred to as Populuxe or Doo Wop. The term Googie comes from the now-defunct Googies Coffee Shop in Hollywood designed by John Lautner. The style later became widely known as part of the mid-century modern style, elements of which represent the populuxe aesthetic, as in Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal. Googie-themed architecture was popular among roadside businesses, including motels, coffee houses and gas stations. It originated in Southern California from the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s, and was popular in the United States from roughly 1945 to the early 1970s. Googie architecture ( / ˈ ɡ uː ɡ i/ GOO-ghee ) is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, the Atomic Age and the Space Age. Norms Restaurants location on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles ![]()
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