07 · Modernist

Googie

c. 1945–1970

Space-age roadside optimism: upswept roofs, boomerang angles, starburst signs, and neon.

Look for

Streamlined curves Cantilever Sunburst motif

Theme Building, Los Angeles: an example of Googie architecture — Theme Building, Los Angeles. Photo: monkeytime | brachiator, CC BY-SA 2.0

Pann's Restaurant, Los Angeles — **Pann's Restaurant** Los Angeles · unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0

Bob's Big Boy, Burbank, California — **Bob's Big Boy** Burbank, California · Junkyardsparkle, CC0

Space Needle, Seattle — **Space Needle** Seattle · Jordon Kalilich, Public domain

McDonald's Downey, Downey, California — **McDonald's Downey** Downey, California · Piewug, CC BY-SA 4.0

what it is

Googie is a style of roadside commercial architecture that began in postwar Southern California. Buildings have roofs that tilt upward or fold into zigzags, boomerang and starburst shapes, cantilevered canopies, and large plate-glass walls that show the interior to passing drivers. Tall signs with neon lighting are often built into the structure. Materials are mainly steel, glass and concrete, and the forms refer to jet aircraft and space travel.

Norms on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles (1957), by Armet & Davis, has angular walls, a jutting roof, large windows and a neon sign. The Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport (1961), by Pereira & Luckman with Paul Williams and Welton Becket, raises a round central structure on two crossed arches. The McDonald's in Downey, California, opened in 1953, is the oldest operating McDonald's restaurant. Other examples include Johnie's Coffee Shop on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign.

how to spot one

Streamlined curves Rounded building corners, smooth wall surfaces and horizontal bands or grooves running along the walls. They are the main features of Streamline Moderne buildings of the 1930s and 1940s. Cantilever A beam, floor or part of a building that projects beyond its support and is anchored at only one end. It lets balconies, terraces and upper floors extend outward without columns below. Sunburst motif A pattern of straight rays spreading from a central point or half circle, placed over doors, windows and gates or near a building's top. It is common in Art Deco design.

Also look for

Exposed structure Corner window Flat roof

history

The style is named after Googies, a coffee shop at Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights in Hollywood, designed by John Lautner in 1949. Googie was a family nickname of Lillian K. Burton, the wife of the original owner. Douglas Haskell, editor of House and Home, saw the building while driving through Los Angeles and used its name for the style in a 1952 article. Wayne McAllister, Lautner and the firm Armet & Davis, with the designer Helen Liu Fong, produced many of the best-known coffee shops.

The style spread with car travel through the 1950s and 1960s to coffee shops, motels, car washes, gas stations and bowling alleys. Many of these buildings were demolished after the 1960s, including Googies itself in 1989. The Los Angeles Conservancy's Modern Committee, founded in 1984, and the Doo Wop Preservation League in Wildwood, New Jersey, have campaigned to save surviving examples. Norms La Cienega was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2015.

where to find it

Surviving Los Angeles coffee shops like Pann's and Norms, the Theme Building at LAX, and classic Las Vegas signs.

easy to confuse with

Stahl House, an example of Mid-Century Modern

Mid-Century Modern Post-and-beam houses with walls of glass, flat or butterfly roofs, and easy flow between indoors and out.

TWA Flight Center, an example of Neo-Futurism

Neo-Futurism Sculptural techno-optimism: sweeping white shells, skeletal ribs, and winglike canopies.