Quick Facts: Style: Googie architecture. Era: Late 1940s through the 1960s. Origin: Named after a coffee shop in Los Angeles designed by John Lautner. Key features: Boomerang rooflines, starbursts, upswept canopies, atomic motifs, bold signs. Primary locations: California, Nevada, and the American Southwest. Current status: Endangered, with many examples demolished.
Googie architecture is the visual language of postwar American optimism. Upswept roofs. Boomerang angles. Neon starbursts. Atomic motifs on coffee shops and bowling alleys and gas stations. It was never meant to be serious. It was meant to say: the future is here, it’s exciting, and you should stop in for a burger.
Where the Name Comes From
In 1949, architect John Lautner designed a coffee shop on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles called Googie’s. Architecture critic Douglas Haskell visited, looked at the soaring cantilevered canopy and space-age geometry, and coined the term to describe the whole emerging aesthetic. The name stuck, and the style kept spreading.
The Design Language of the Space Age
Googie absorbed the cultural anxieties and enthusiasms of the atomic age and turned them into roadside geometry. The same era that launched Sputnik also produced coffee shops with rooflines that looked ready to launch. Starburst ceiling fixtures appeared everywhere. Neon signs reached new heights of exuberance. The whole effect was forward-moving, kinetic, borderline euphoric.
Why So Much of It Was Demolished
Googie was commercial architecture, built cheaply and quickly, and tied to businesses that came and went. When the aesthetic fell out of fashion in the 1970s, most examples were torn down or renovated beyond recognition rather than preserved. What survives is a small and increasingly appreciated fraction of what once existed. Las Vegas holds some of the finest remaining examples.
Why It Deserves Serious Attention
Googie is easy to dismiss as kitsch. It’s harder to dismiss once you look closely. The structural logic is often genuinely innovative, the graphic design is consistently excellent, and the ambition to make ordinary commercial buildings visually exciting is one that contemporary architecture could stand to revisit. Not every building needs to be a masterpiece. Some just need to make you smile.
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6 Comments
Amazed to see that the Elm Road drive in is still going strong and is a great example of Googie architecture. I grew up on the other (west) side of Warren, Ohio, and Googie was everywhere. My favorite was Rainbow Lanes, although it’s since been remodeled and the fabulous Googie sign taken down. The Skyway drive in (my local hangout) still has a Googie sign as well, but it can’t hold a candle to Elm Road.
Article updates include his name and influence, thanks for the comment!
NO MENTION OF JOHN LAUTNER ?????
I lived in Lakeland, FL. when EDWARD SCISSORHANDS was shot nearby. In addition to Tim Burton’s usual nods to Expressionism, the 50’s and 60’s architecture of the malls looked a lot like this. On a somewhat related note, visit the campus of Florida Southern (also in Lakeland), where Frank Lloyd Wright designed several buildings.
I would add BBF restaurants with their whirling satellite signs
Love this article! I just wish you had included some pics from Wildwood, NJ, which some regard as the largest compilation of Googie architecture in one area in the United States. Thanks for a terrific read! 🙂