Googie architecture
Posted on:4/11/2006
| Googie, also known as populuxe, is a subdivison of futurist architecture influenced by car culture and the Space Age, originating from southern California in the late 1940s and continuing approximately into the mid-1960s. |
Googie, also known as populuxe, is a subdivison of futurist architecture influenced by car culture and the Space Age, originating from southern California in the late 1940s and continuing approximately into the mid-1960s. With upswept roofs and, often, curvaceous, geometric shapes, and bold use of glass, steel and neon, it decorated many a motel, coffee house and bowling alley in the 1950s and 1960s. It epitomizes the spirit a generation demanded, looking excitedly towards a bright, technological and futuristic age.
As it became clear that the future would not look like The Jetsons, the style came to be timeless rather than futuristic. As with the art deco style of the 1930s, it has remained undervalued until many of its finest examples had been destroyed. The style is related to and sometimes synonymous with the Raygun Gothic style as coined by writer William Gibson.
According to author Alan Hess in his book "Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture", the origin of the name "Googie" goes back to 1949, when architect John Lautner designed a coffee shop by the name of "Googie's", which had very distinctive architectural characteristics. This coffee shop was on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights in Los Angeles, but was demolished in the 1980s. According to Hess, the name "Googie" stuck as a rubric for the architectural style when Professor Douglass Haskell of Yale and architectural photographer Julius Shulman were driving through Los Angeles one day. Haskell insisted on stopping the car upon seeing "Googie's", and proclaimed "This is Googie architecture". He made the name stick after an article he wrote appeared in a 1952 edition of House and Home magazine.
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