The Fight to Save Googie, the Style of Postwar Optimism (NY Times) - Page 2

xzmattzx · #21 Posted **Dec 28, 2024, 4:10 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

I debated whether to paste the Arby's sign. The article has several other excellent examples of Googie architecture. With the Arby's sign, the article notes that large signs designed to capture the attention of drivers and the use of neon lighting are part of the Googie style.

I would say Googie (or Doo Wop in New Jersey) is a subset of Modernist architecture, of course, and overlaps Roadside architecture. But Roadside architecture can be many styles. Two buildings in the Richmond area exemplify that. This Streamline Moderne tobacco company building is also Roadside architecture because the huge neon sign was meant to act like a billboard as people drove along US Route 1. It was built in 1940, so it's not space-age or postwar. Then the Phillip Morris headquarters nearby is either late Modernist or early Postmodern, but is meant to catch driver's attention by looking like some loose cigarettes. Neither is Googie, but both are Roadside, and both are to be recognizable when going 50 mph or faster. The article apparently says the neon signs are Googie (but it's behind a paywall), but I wouldn't consider a cowboy hat to be space age in the least, unless in an ironic way. I think most fast food places are just Roadside, since they tend to evolve and blend styles a lot.

JManc · #22 Posted **Dec 28, 2024, 6:04 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhays

I don't necessarily agree, but even if so...fine with me. Better neighborhoods, urban density, and more housing supply are more important than keeping examples of postwar architectural styles, and I don't think these places typically improve character. The hotel in Chicago for example just looks crappy and is very car-oriented despite being marginally interesting to look at.

Prewar buildings, on the other hand, tend to have a lot more architectural merit, and I'm glad we're going farther in preserving more of those.

I agree about saving signs sometimes. The Museum of History and Industry for example exhibits a former Pink Elephant Car Wash sign and the former Toe Truck.

Modern urban density and housing supply typically means cranking out the same old banal architecture with the same cookie cutter retail on the ground level in one city after the other. Yours included. It's not like cities are full of these quirky buildings from the 50's and 60's and they do break up the sterility of most newer development. As a photographer, I'd stop and take a pic of the Googie hotel and not even notice the buildings around it.

mhays · #23 Posted **Dec 28, 2024, 6:54 AM**

I'll take my quirkiness in the form of prewar multi-story brick buildings that still dot most good urban neighborhoods.

JManc · #24 Posted **Dec 28, 2024, 7:55 AM**

Pre-war predated post war Space Age/ Googie, obviously, so it's modern development that threatens both. We've long learned our lessens from the wholesale destruction of prewar structures during the Urban Renewal era. It's the buildings built during that time that are the most vulnerable now. Many are unremarkable but many are worth saving.

badrunner · #25 Posted **Dec 28, 2024, 8:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

I debated whether to paste the Arby's sign. The article has several other excellent examples of Googie architecture. With the Arby's sign, the article notes that large signs designed to capture the attention of drivers and the use of neon lighting are part of the Googie style.

Yeah that Arby's sign isn't exactly the most representative example of Googie style. There are some nice photos in the article though. It's a great read (non-paywall link: https://archive.ph/cWf4Y)

all photos by Ashok Sinha/NYT:

deja vu · #26 Posted **Dec 28, 2024, 10:29 PM**

The former Federal Savings and Loan Association, located in Mount Clemens, Michigan, is a good example from my home state. It was designed by Architect William Kessler, built in 1960. It has gone through some modifications, most notably, when it was converted into a night club and the interior was redesigned by architect Tamara Kessler (William Kessler’s daughter).

From its inception -

Quote:

A. D. Brewer, president of the Savings and Loan, expressed his excitement about his new bank building in a February 1960 issue of the Daily Monitor-Leader stating, “The building will be as breathtakingly modern as the automobile, the airplane and the space missile. It will be the showplace of Mount Clemens.”

Source: michiganmodern.org

Source: Facebook | Michigan Modern

The North One · #27 Posted **Dec 29, 2024, 9:09 PM**

^ Oh wow. I don't really care for the other examples but that one is really cool.

deja vu · #28 Posted **Dec 31, 2024, 9:33 PM**

Yeah I really like that one too.

I thought of another iconic building in Michigan - the Olivet College Collegiate Center (a.k.a. the Lester K. Kirk Center). Some quick research reveals that this was designed by the same architect, William Kessler, and it was built just a few years after the Federal Savings and Loan Association (in 1963). While this is not considered true "Googie" by scholars of the style, I'd argue it is definitely "Googie-adjacent" with its curvilinear forms, roof projections, and deep overhangs. Definitely, it is more aligned with more formal "modernism" than some of the roadside architecture examples shared in this thread.

I've visited it and it is pretty cool in-person, but my photos are not as good as these -

Source: Michigan Modern

deja vu · #29 Posted **Dec 31, 2024, 9:52 PM**

Dawn Donuts might be more what we are talking about here. The prototype store originated in Jackson, MI in the early 60's, with several clones following throughout Michigan and Ohio - some still standing, some gone (the one nearest me is now home to a Moe's Southwest Grill). Dawn Donuts was established in Jackson in 1920 and it was eventually bought-out by Dunkin' Donuts in 1991 (although the bakery name and a few independent locations still survive to this day). The Jackson location is the only building of this style to still operate as a Dunkin' shop today, but others have found life with new owners. Click the link to see the various examples - quite interesting to compare how they have changed and evolved -

Here is the Jackson location, in 1962, shortly after opening -

Source: MLive

Here is a more contemporary view, after Dunkin' had taken over, but before the latest remodel (pre-2015). A lot of the windows were infilled -

Source: Roadside Architecture

And here is the same location as it looks today. It's fun to imagine the Dunkin' Donuts corporate design team scratching their heads, figuring how to apply their latest design standards to this atypical form -

Source: Google Maps

Comrade · #30 Posted **Dec 31, 2024, 10:02 PM**

Salt Lake has a few - maybe the most notable is Iceberg:

Would you count this as that style (St. Ann Catholic Church)?:

xzmattzx · #31 Posted **Dec 31, 2024, 11:48 PM**

What's the difference between Googie and Modernist? Googie seems to have a bubbly look to it, like 60s TV show intros or vibrant advertisements from that time.

Steely Dan · #32 Posted **Jan 1, 2025, 1:04 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

What's the difference between Googie and Modernist?

Modernist is Don Draper.

Googie is Bozo the Clown.

Both are necessary.

craigs · #33 Posted **Jan 1, 2025, 1:33 AM**

Modernism: "Form follows function."
Googie: "Look at me! I'm a boomerang!"

JManc · #34 Posted **Jan 1, 2025, 2:47 AM**

Modernist is Dave Brubeck's "Take Five"

Googie is the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird"

mrnyc · #35 Posted **Jan 1, 2025, 3:29 PM**

i think of the googie era as being the decade from 1955-1965, although maybe narrower than that ?? — and also incorporates jet age and space age themes.

not sure when it ended exactly, but i did not know it actually had a distinct beginning:

“Googie” originates from Googie’s Coffee Shop in Los Angeles, designed by John Lautner in 1949. The establishment’s distinct architectural style captured the public’s imagination and emulated the era’s forward-looking ethos. Googie architecture was heavily influenced by the car culture of Southern California, the advent of the Jet Age, and the excitement surrounding the Space Race.

https://newyorkspaces.com/discovering-th...tecture-through-history/#google_vignette