Googie -- an architectural movement popular in the 1950s -- epitomized an era during which people really believed that, by 2001, we'd live on Lunar Colonies, as opposed to Thomas Kinkade colonies. But no regrets, especially considering the Googie relics that have survived the cruel seventies, eighties and nineties now stand proud among our own generation's roadside architectural achievements, such as Costco.Also called Space Age, Coffee House Modern, Doo-Wop, and (for some reason) Populuxe, Googie architecture was just one of many oddball roadside styles to emerge 60 years ago, along with Tiki (in which coconut-shell cocktails with straws were obligatory) and Mimetic Architecture, in which the buildings were shaped like the products they sold. Googie, named after a Los Angeles coffee shop that pioneered the design, and characterized by its bright rectangular signs, industrial effects and arching rooflines, was intended -- like all Roadside Architecture -- to capture the attention of motorists cruising along at 20mph sipping Moscow Mules in their Ford Fairlanes. Which was good times.
But how do you spot a Googie from a Tiki from a Mimetic? Here are the particulars:
Upswept Roofs -- Some HoJos still have them; no skateboarding allowed
Domes -- Space station on the outside, free Ovaltine refills on the inside
Boomerang Shapes -- Competed heavily with, and eventually beat out, Slingshot Shapes
Amoeba Shapes -- Because biology was fascinating to people
Atomic Energy Symbols -- Because, hey, we built the bomb
Huge Glass Windows -- For an optimized view of Main Street drag races
Exposed steel beams -- You weren't just drinking Sanka, you were drinking Sanka on Mars
Curious for more? Roadside Peek has a stockpile of examples. And, in the following video, Architecture authority Lee Bey looks at a genuine Googie dry cleaners on Chicago's South Side:
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-05-2007 @ 2:49PM
Digital Traveler said...
Great article; Googie and programmatic architecture is my passion, and the United States isn't the only country that has it. France does, and the take on it is a bit different.
http://digitalartphotographyfordummies.blogspot.com/2007/04/digital-travelers-googie-around-world.html
I've even written a book on the subject called "The Book of Signs--the Twentieth Century!"
4-05-2007 @ 2:29PM
Digital Traveler said...
Check out http://digitalartphotographyfordummies.blogspot.com/2007/04/digital-travelers-googie-around-world.html for the French version of this architecture.