University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Theses (Historic Preservation) Graduate Program in Historic Preservation 2020 Preserving Los Angeles's Googie: An Analysis of a Commercial Style, Change, and Preservation Emelyn Nájera Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses Part of the Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons Nájera, Emelyn, "Preserving Los Angeles's Googie: An Analysis of a Commercial Style, Change, and Preservation" (2020). Theses (Historic Preservation). 693. https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/693 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/693 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Preserving Los Angeles's Googie: An Analysis of a Commercial Style, Change, and Preservation Abstract "Inspired by the imposing forms of planes, ships, and sleek futuristic technology, Googie gave Los Angeles’s commercial architecture “wings, angles, texture, color, and just about anything else that would catch the eye and lure a passing motorist.” Like its Programmatic precursor, Googie was cultivated in a vernacular commercial landscape geared towards advertisement. The style defied tradition with its glossary of dramatic angles; its ostentatious color palette; and its use of steel, chrome, and neon. Notably, it saw extensive use in the most vernacular of commercial structures, lending character to bowling alleys, motels, car washes, gas stations, and restaurants. By the 1960s Googie architecture had spread beyond the Southern California boundaries, dotting the country with corresponding roadside designs. However, by the 1980s the style’s popularity had waned, and stiff competition in the commercial landscape coupled with a pressure to maximize the profitability of prime real-estate locations, resulted in the demolition of significant Googie structures. As a result, some of the style’s most iconic sites, like the eponymous Googie Coffee Shop on Sunset Boulevard, were razed in favor of newer commercial ventures. This thesis investigates the internal and external mechanisms of change affecting Los Angeles’s Googie commercial architecture, examining case-studies of preservation successes and failures, and the regulatory frameworks in place for the advocacy and preservation of the style. Key lessons learned through this study pose an argument in favor of the preservation of Googie and the everyday buildings of our urban lives. " Keywords Googie, Los Angeles, space age, commercial architecture, doo wop Disciplines Historic Preservation and Conservation This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/693 PRESERVING LOS ANGELES’S GOOGIE: AN ANALYSIS OF A COMMERCIAL STYLE, CHANGE, AND PRESERVATION Emelyn Ruby Nájera A THESIS in Historic Preservation Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION 2020 ______________________ Advisor William Whitaker Curator and Collections Manager ______________________ Program Chair Frank G. Matero Professor ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the support of my advisor, Bill Whitaker who provided guidance and direction for my loosely conceived ideas and passion for Los Angeles and its architecture. I wish to express my sincere appreciation to everyone with whom I have had the pleasure to work with these past few years. Thank you to my classmates, the faculty, and staff of the University of Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Department. Micah, Nadine, Courtney, and Amanda, thank you for answering my million questions. And I would be remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity to acknowledge all those who have taken an active role in making sure I finished this thesis! I want to thank: My boss Rich, for the steady supply of coffee, for providing much needed technological assistance, and for lending an ear when I needed to brainstorm. Kallie, for teaching me the magic of Zotero, and for driving in the middle of the night to deliver a much-needed laptop during an especially tragic moment of technological failure. Saralynn, for lending me a camera to photograph Los Angeles and its Googie gems. Santi, for taking the time to help me edit and wordsmith, and for spending hours with me searching through every single listing of Hess’s incredibly long survey. Dorcas, for rescuing me from Philadelphia and my roommates when the world turned upside down. And my dad, for allowing me to drag him around Los Angeles as I photographed my favorite Googie buildings. Lastly, I would like to thank my family and friends for helping me navigate this long, and at times, stressful journey of higher education. Thank you for encouraging me as I explored my budding interests in architecture and history; and thank you for supporting me when those interests brought me to Philadelphia. I’ll be home soon! ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II LIST OF FIGURES V 1.INTRODUCTION: “THE GOOGIE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE” 1 SETTING THE SCENE: LOS ANGELES AND THE AUTOMOBILE 6 LITERATURE REVIEW: THE RISE AND FALL OF GOOGIE 12 VISUALIZING THE ISSUE 17 2.GOOGIE AS COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE 24 MECHANISMS OF CHANGE: THE EVOLUTION OF THE COMMERCIAL TYPOLOGY 24 RELEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS: THE DUCK AND THE DECORATED SHED 33 3.ARCHITECTURE FOR THE FUTURE: THE PRACTICE OF PRESERVING GOOGIE 40 FROM LAW TO ADVOCACY: KEY COMPONENTS IN PRESERVING GOOGIE 40 FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LEGISLATION 40 UNINCORPORATED LOS ANGELES AND TOOTHLESS PRESERVATION 43 THE CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT 49 ADVOCACY: THE DRIVE TO PRESERVE MODERN DESIGN 52 COMPONENTS AT PLAY: CASE STUDIES 54 UNINCORPORATED LOS ANGELES AND THE PRESERVATION OF WHITTIER’S TAMALE BUILDING 54 L.A. CONSERVANCY V. CITY OF LOS ANGELES (2016) 56 WICH STAND, LOS ANGELES, CA 59 4.IDENTIFYING SUCCESS AND FAILURE: THREE LA CASE STUDIES 62 SUNSET BOULEVARD 62 VAN NUYS BOULEVARD 67 ADAPTIVE REUSE OF THE PANORAMA THEATRE AND GREAT WESTERN SAVINGS 68 CORKY’S AND THE THREAT OF DEMOLITION 71 SANTA MONICA 73 PENGUIN COFFEE SHOP, SANTA MONICA, CA 74 5.CONCLUSION: SOLUTIONS FOR THE FUTURE 79 FUTURE RESEARCH 80 LARGER IMPLICATIONS 81 BIBLIOGRAPHY 82 iii APPENDIX A: DIAGRAMMING GOOGIE CHARACTERISTICS 87 APPENDIX B: LOS ANGELES COUNTY HISTORIC PRESERVATION PRACTICE 92 APPENDIX C: HESS’S TOURS 99 INDEX 122 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: The Covina Bowl circa 1956. (When We Were Home) ________________________________ 2 Figure 1.2: The Covina Bowl three years after its closure. (Nájera, 2020) _______________________ 3 Figure 1.3: The Chili Bowl restaurant, located at 801 N. La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. (Herman Schultheis, ca. 1937, Herman J Schultheis Collection, Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection) ____________________________________________________________________________________ 9 Figure 1.4: The Metropolitan Car Wash, circa 1965. _____________________________________________ 11 Figure 1.5: John Lautner’s Googie Coffee Shop in Los Angeles’s Sunset Strip. ___________________ 14 Figure 1.6: Los Angeles's Googie 1984 - The map illustrates the 409 commercial buildings recorded by Hess in his lists. (Nájera, 2020) ______________________________________________________ 20 Figure 1.7: Los Angeles's Googie 2004. Fifteen percent of structures were lost between the two publications. (Nájera, 2020) _______________________________________________________________________ 21 Figure 1.8: Los Angeles's Googie 2019. Thirty-three percent of Googie buildings recorded in Hess's lists, have been lost. (Nájera, 2020) ________________________________________________________ 22 Figure 1.9: Status of Recorded Googie Buildings as of December 2019. (Nájera, 2020) ________ 23 Figure 2.1: Spring Street, Los Angeles circa 1930. Advertising for the automobile. (Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection) __________________________________________________________________________________________ 27 Figure 2.2: Neon Sign for Mel's Drive-In in Hollywood, California. (Carol Highsmith, 1946, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-highsm-24293) ________________ 30 Figure 2.3: Jack-in-the-Box Mark II, designed by Wayne Williams. (Foodmaker Corporation) 34 Figure 2.4: The Donut Hole in El Monte, California. (Nájera, 2020) _____________________________ 35 Figure 2.5: The "duck" and "decorated shed." (Venturi, 1972, Learning from Las Vegas) _____ 38 Figure 2.6: Johnie's Broiler after its demolition in 2007. (Adriene Biondo, Downey, CA) _______ 39 Figure 3.1: Los Angeles County Historic Preservation Report Card. (Nájera, 2020) ____________ 47 Figure 3.2: Driftwood Drive-Thru in El Monte, California. (Nájera, 2020) ______________________ 48 Figure 3.3: Downey’s McDonald’s is currently the oldest operating in the country, yet it does benefit from local historic preservation measures. (Nájera, 2020) _____________________________ 48 Figure 3.4: The former Tamale restaurant in East Los Angeles. (Security Pacific National Bank Photo Collection) ___________________________________________________________________________________ 55 v Figure 3.5: The former Lytton Savings, currently Chase Bank on Sunset Boulevard. (Nájera, 2020) _______________________________________________________________________________________________ 58 Figure 3.6: The Wich Stand, undated. _____________________________________________________________ 61 Figure 3.7: The former Wich Stand, now