GOOGIE
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
....In order to understand and appreciate the beginnings of the Sambo's Restaurant Chain, it's imperative that you know and understand the era of the Googie Architectual Design. Below, I have compiled the best sourses of information found to bring you a quick understanding of this special era of architecture. I myself have just learned of Googie as I found my passion for the history of Sambo's. I not only spot Googie everywhere I go now, but rememeber being in buildings of Googie without even knowing what I was looking at. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
___Googie Architecture___
....Googie is one of those architectural styles that is way
underappreciated. This architectural design came about in the
post World War II era and was very popular throughout the 50s and
60s. Los Angeles and Orange County California were the
birthplaces of Googie architecture and they both hold some of the
best remnants of this style. The term Googie was originally
coined by a man by the name of John Lautner in the year 1949,
when he designed a coffee shop called Googie’s in Los
Angeles. The name "Googie" had been a family nickname
of Lillian K. Burton, the wife of the original owner, Mortimer C.
Burton. Googies was located at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and
Crescent Heights in Los Angeles but was demolished in 1989. The
name Googie remained as 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. 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.
....Googie
buildings were a kind of roadside attraction, and many
Restaurants, Coffee Houses, Bowling Houses, Motels, Gas Stations,
Conveyor Type Car Washes and Drive In Theater signs had this
style. This architectural style was inspired by the Space Age and
the Atomic Age, and many architects designed their Googie
buildings to possess features similar to those of rocket ships.
The website Space Age City might put it best: “Googie often
seems like a joint design by the Jetsons and the
Flintstones.”
....One
of the best examples of this is the Space Needle in Seattle,
Washington. People were imagining what the future would be like,
and the result was a very modern and unique design. One might
describe these buildings to be Jetson-esque or futuristic because
of their modern architecture and flashy designs. These buildings
often have geometric or abstract shapes, zig zag roof lines,
curvaceous, geometric shapes, sloping upwards roofs, exaggerated
details, playful signage, flying saucer or boomerang shapes,
atoms and parabolas, sharp angles, and free-form designs such as
"soft" parallelograms and an artist's palette motif.
Many Googie buildings have some type of rock wall on the outside
or indoor gardens that were meant to represent nature, and large
windows were often included that were meant to break down
barriers between the inside and the outside. Googie architecture
has also been called Populuxe, Doo-Wop, Coffee House Modern, Jet
Age, Space Age and Chinese Modern.
....This
style of building is being torn down at an alarming rate, and
they are often torn down because they are too old to be
considered modern, but most of them were built in the 50s and
60s, so they aren’t quite old enough to have historical
significance either. Googie buildings are sometimes not taken
seriously because of their bold designs, but they are an
important part of mid-century American culture. When Googie
architecture was first started, it was all about the future, and
now that more time has passed, Googie architecture has lost a lot
of its popularity. They are often seen as too flashy or gaudy in
our modern society, and many people don’t think they are
worth preserving. As with the Art Deco style of the 1930s, Googie
became less valued as time passed, and many buildings in this
style have been destroyed. Opponents may say that Googie style
buildings are important parts of our history, and that they play
a role in the growth of suburbia and the car culture. These
buildings represent the ideas that were popular during the
mid-century era. Some examples have been preserved though, such
as the oldest McDonald's stand and Johnie's Coffee Shop which
were both placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
___More Googie Detail___
....Googie's beginnings are with the Streamline Moderne
architecture of the 1930s. 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 catering
to it. 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. The suburbs offered less congestion by
offering the same businesses, but accessible by car. Instead of
one main store downtown, businesses now had multiple stores in
suburban areas. This new trend required owners and architects to
develop a visual imagery so customers would recognize it from the
road. This modern consumer architecture was based on
communication. This was achieved by using bold style choices,
including large pylons with elevated signs, bold neon letters and
circular pavilions. 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. 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. 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.
....The
prosperous 1950s, however, celebrated its affluence with
optimistic designs. The development of nuclear power and the
reality of spaceflight captivated the public’s imagination
of the future. Googie architecture exploited this trend by
incorporating energy into its design with elements such as the
boomerang, diagonals, atomic bursts and bright colors. According
to Hess, commercial architecture was influenced by the desires of
the mass audience. The public was captivated by rocket ships and
nuclear energy, so, in order to draw their attention, architects
used these as motifs in their work. Buildings had been used to
catch the attention of motorists since the invention of the car,
but during the 1950s the style became more widespread.
....The
identity of the first architect to practice in the style is often
disputed, though Wayne McAllister was one early and influential
architect in starting the style with his 1949 Bob's Big Boy
restaurant in Burbank. McAllister got his start designing
fashionable restaurants in Southern California which lead to a
series of Streamline Moderne drive-ins during the 1930s; though
he did not have formal training as an architect, he had been
offered a scholarship at the architecture school at the
University of Pennsylvania because of his skill. McAllister
developed a brand for coffee shop chains by developing a style
for each client – which also allowed customers to easily
recognize a store from the road. Along with McAllister, the
prolific Googie architects included John Lautner, Douglas Honnold
and the team of Louis Armet and Eldon Davis of Armet & Davis
firm, which they founded in 1947. Also instrumental in developing
the style was designer Helen Liu Fong, a member of the firm of
Armet and Davis. Joining the firm during 1951, she created such
Googie interiors as those of the Johnie's Coffee Shop on Wilshire
Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, the first Norms Restaurant, the
Holiday Bowl on Crenshaw Boulevard, and the "Theme
Building" at Los Angeles International Airport.
....America's
interest in spaceflight had a significant influence on the unique
style of Googie architecture. During the 1950s, space travel
became a reality for the first time in history. During 1957 the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first human-made satellite
to achieve Earth orbit. The Soviet Union then launched Vostok 1
carrying the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into Earth orbit during
1961. The Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations made competing
with the Soviets for dominance in space a national priority of
considerable urgency and importance. This marked the beginning of
the so-called "Space Race".
....Googie
style signs usually boast sharp and bold angles, which suggest
the aerodynamic features of a rocket ship. Also, at the time, the
unique architecture was a form of architectural expressionism, as
rockets were technological novelties at the time. One famous
example of Googie's legacy is the Space Needle in Seattle,
Washington. Other contemporary tower design philosophies were
often less ornate, ranging from straight-edged steel lattice
structures like the Osaka Tower and Beppu Tower in Japan, to the
mixed heritage of European concrete towers like the very-visible
Fernsehturm Berlin or the Fernmeldeturm Kuhkopf. A noted Canadian
example of Googie architecture is the Skylon Tower, located at
Niagara Falls, Ontario.
___Googie Examples___
....Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. The TWA Flight Center terminal at the John F. Kennedy International Airport shows populuxe influence even while considered a mainstream classic of mid-modern public space. Cantilevered structures, acute angles, illuminated plastic paneling, freeform boomerang and artist's palette shapes and cutouts, and tailfins on buildings marked Googie architecture, which was contemptible to the architects of establishment, High Art Modernism, but had defenders during the post-Modern period at the end of the 20th century. The common elements that generally distinguish Googie from other forms of architecture are Roofs sloping at an upward angle. This is the one particular element in which architects were creating a unique structure. Many Googie style coffee shops, and other structures, have a roof that appears to be 2/3 of an inverted obtuse triangle. A great example of this is the famous, but now closed, Johnie's Coffee Shop on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. (shown below)
....Perhaps the most notable example of the starburst appears on the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign, which has now become famous. The ornamental design is in the form of, as Hess writes, "a high-energy explosion." This shape is an example of non-utilitarian design as the star shape has no actual function but merely serves as a design element. (shown below)
....The boomerang was another design element that captured
movement. It was used structurally in place of a pillar or
aesthetically as a stylized arrow. Hess writes that the boomerang
was a stylistic rendering of a directional energy field.
....Editor
Douglas Haskell described the abstract Googie style, saying that
"If it looks like a bird, this must be a geometric
bird." Also, the buildings must appear to defy gravity, as
Haskell noted: "...whenever possible, the building must hang
from the sky." Haskell's third tenet for Googie was that it
have more than one theme—more than one structural system.
Because of its need to be noticed from moving automobiles along
the commercial strip, Googie was not a style noted for its
subtlety.
....One
of the more famous Googie buildings is the Theme Building at Los
Angeles International Airport (LAX), designed by James Langenheim
of Pereira and Luckman and built during 1961.
....Another remaining example of Googie architecture still in operation is the main terminal at Washington Dulles International Airport, designed by Eero Saarinen in 1958. The terminal exemplifies the dramatic roof slope, large windows, and generous use of concrete, somewhat similar to Saarinen's TWA Flight Center.
....
___Googie Architecture Today ___
After the 1960s, the architectural community rarely appreciated or accepted Googie, considering it too flashy and vernacular for academic praise, and the architecture of the 1970s (especially Modernism) thus abandoned Googie. As Hess discusses, beginning during the 1970s, commercial buildings were meant to blend into the urban environment and not attract attention. Since Googie buildings were part of the service industry, most developers did not think they were worth preserving as cultural artifacts. Despite the humble origins of Googie, Hess writes that, “Googie architecture is an important part of the history of suburbia.” Googie was a symbol of the early days of car culture. It wasn’t until the 1990s that efforts were made to conserve Googie buildings. However, by this time it was too late to save some famous landmarks such as Googie’s and Ship’s Westwood, which had already been demolished. Despite the loss of these important landmarks, other famous Googie buildings such as Pann's, Norm's, the Wich Stand and some of the original Bob’s Big Boy locations have been preserved and restored.
In Wildwood, a "Doo Wop Preservation League" works with local business and property owners, city planning and zoning officials, and the state's historic preservation office to help ensure that the remaining historic structures will be preserved. Wildwood's high-rise hotel district has been the first in the USA to enforce "Doo Wop" design guidelines for new construction.