View allAll Photos Tagged Googie
4508 W Slauson Ave, Los Angeles, Windsor Hills neighborhood.
The building was designed by the architectural firm Armet & Davis for the Wich Stand drive-in/restaurant that opened in 1958. This example of Googie architecture was declared a historic landmark by the Los Angeles County in 1988. Today it is a restaurant called Simply Wholesome.
Nothing like a faded old sign beside a lonely desert highway.
Above is my half-assed attempt at a Mojave sunset.
This googie burger stand—originally Giant Burger, later Space Burger—will soon be demolished to make way for a condo building.
1060 W. San Bernardino Rd., Covina, CA
Covina Bowl, which dates to 1956, was the first "deluxe" bowling center designed by Powers, Daly, and DeRosa... and when they meant "deluxe," they weren't messing around. The entrance to the Egyptian-themed Covina Bowl is marked by a giant pyramid. In addition to bowling lanes, the original line-up included a billiard room, coffee shop, restaurant, nursery, beauty salon called the "Hair Em" (LOL), and the "Pyramid Room" cocktail lounge.
Back of postcard reads:
BRUNNER PALMS MOTEL
215 N. Imperial Avenue
El Centro, Calif. 92244
The Broiler! Charcoal broiled steaks and chops. Cocktail lounges, 24-hour Coffee Shop. Two swimming pools. Sauna Bath. 24-hour direct dial telephones. Free television. Free Airport pickup. Located at junction of State Hwy. 86 X U.S. 80.
Photography by Dick Wood
Amescolor Publishers, Escondido, Calif.
The back reads:
HOTEL UTAH MOTOR LODGE, Salt Lake City
This dramatic entrance leads you to an attractive motor hotel that is also a unique convention center with huge underground exhibit hall and auditorium. Comfortable, TV-furnished rooms, large warm-weather swimming pool, colorful Crossroads Restaurant.
Wowee!! This place is the stuff, baby. Or "was". The only address I could find for it was "125 W North Temple", and a satellite view shows nothing but a big parking lot now. What a shame if this was torn down.
The sky on this card was obviously a cut-n-paste job. I'm guess this card is from the late 50's, early 60's, since that's a 1959 Ford they're getting out of.
During my errand to Reseda, I drove over to North Hollywood and along the way I found this old restaurant. It had closed a couple days before, and would soon be bulldozed to make way for a CVS pharmacy.
I Photoshopped this image to make it seem more the way the San Fernando Valley looked to me when I lived there: bright and garish and sun-washed, with massive stained asphalt parking lots and googie lounges and restaurants and donut shops jostling each other.
It's not really like that anymore. These days it looks a lot like Orange County or the San Gabriel Valley or any other part of Southern California, with a Starbucks and a Burger King at every corner.
Mona's motel is located right down the road from Gabe's Gas & Grease. Despite the fashionable colors, Mona was worried that her motel looked too bland to be noticed from the road, and had a rather striking roof made for the lobby area. To top it off she ordered an outrageous sign and placed it on the roof. As the parking lot is full of cars, we might conclude that her strategy has been a success.
What an absolute goldmine of vintage neon signs Fresno is! I've got several dozen shots to post.
This stretch was amazing - Three motels and this old coffee shop sign in a row. The Fresno diving girl is incredible, but I was really impressed with this plastic googie-style coffee shop sign.
Southern California's booming growth from the 1920s to the 1950s and prominent car culture meant that the drive-in restaurant and coffee shop proliferated. They got fancier through the years, and Douglas Honnold's 1950 Tiny Naylor's branch was not only an example of "Googie" style, but a landmark architectural achievement, period. The building was severely angled so as to present a bold glass front that faced both Sunset and La Brea. and caught traffic from both streets. The recessed spotlights in the marquee made for a glittering scene at night. Many of us howled when the corner was marked for redevelopment in the early 1980s; it didn't matter, because TIny Naylor's was demolished in favor of a typical mini-mall in 1984; on the corner today is an El Pollo Loco branch. (What was wrong with Tiny Naylor's chicken?)
The ice cream parlor is still there (now Mashti Malone's) , and so is Roman's Liquors; the Stardust motel is gone. The high-rise at the corner of Hollywood Blvd in the background (at the time the Safa Medical Center) is often draped with "Tall Wall" adversising. Runyon Canyon with its vast park and open space can be seen in the hilly distance.
If a fire ever broke out here the situation would seem to be well in hand.
Pann's, located in Los Angeles off of the very busy La Tijera Boulevard, has been a staple of Googie architecture and great diner food for over 50 years. Inside the interior is a cheery red with Flintstone-like sienna-colored rock accents, and the food is scrumptious and the pace lively. Need more information? Here's their story from their website: www.panns.com/ourstory.htm
built in 1968, designed by architect bob mcclintock this canadian tire gas station in mississauga ontario was slated to be torn down when the city stepped in.
a rare piece of 'googie' architecture remaining in ontario, represents the age in which it was founded, the space age, the atomic age.
They're renovating (i.e. destroying) the front of the building. Which is a shame, because while sort of subtle, it was a googie funeral home.
The distinctive white 'googie' Theme Building, designed by Pereira & Luckman architect Paul Williams and constructed in 1961 by Robert E. McKee Construction Co., resembles a flying saucer that has just landed. A restaurant with a sweeping view of the airport is suspended beneath the two arches that form the legs.
Copyright 2019, please do not use without permission, thank you.
Tucson, Arizona
Been in business since 1948. Very cool googie building; a lumber facility never looked so stylish.
Back of postcard reads:
Porter At Your Service
A new concept in Motels
PORTER HOUSE
Highways 60 - 77 - 173 - 160 - 789
Show Low, Arizona
Member of AAA
Gateway to the White Mountains
Summer - Winter - Vacation - Sports - Hunting - Fishing - Water and Snow Skiing - T.V. - Room Phones - Room Service.
"Better fill up, only gas for a hundred miles in either direction..."
Petr-O-Rama is a rusty, grungy and junk-filled retro 60s-esque gas station somewhere deep on Route 66. Some of my favorite details include a vintage Coca-Cola vending machine, art deco radio and gas pump. I built the car (based on the 1960 Chevy Impala) to help further the dingy vibe... it is supposed to be broken down, hence its lack of tires and dark rusty brown color.
It was a fairly quick build I finished a while ago... I just didn't have time to photograph it! Despite my lack of posting, I have been busy as a beaver building big things, so stay tuned for those.
The El Camino in Socorro, New Mexico is a great diner with good food, including excellent New Mexico food.
But the fun part is that this cafe was designed in the "Googie" era and still shows many characteristics. For instance, the sign outside is pure Googie, as are the decorations for the counter frontage and chairs.
Googie explained:
"Googie architecture was born of the post-WWII car-culture and thrived in the 1950s and 1960s. Bold angles, colorful signs, plate glass, sweeping cantilevered roofs and pop-culture imagery captured the attention of drivers on adjacent streets. Bowling alleys looked like Tomorrowland. Coffee shops looked like something in a Jetsons cartoon. "
ochistorical.blogspot.com/2017/07/bobs-big-boy-harbor-blv...
Image taken using Open Camera, and processed with GIMP.
Googie architecture originated in Southern California. It is inspired by 1900's vision of what future architecture would look like. Googie architecture was the new, and the booming Anaheim, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas opened new opportunities for developers and architects alike to build cities inspired by UFO-shapes. However, much of the googie architecture are already replaced or demolished.