The cantilevered structures, acute angles, illuminated plastic panels, free-form boomerang, and the shapes and cutouts of the artist's palette "Palette (paint)"), and tail fins "Fin (automobile)") on the buildings marked Googie architecture, which was despicable by some architects of today's high art Modernism, but had some defenders during the postmodern period at the turn of the century. The common elements that generally distinguish Googie from other forms of architecture are:.

The boomerang shape was another design element that captured movement. It was used structurally in place of a pillar or aesthetically as a stylized arrow. Hess writes that the boomerang was a stylistic interpretation of a directional energy field.[14]​.

Editor Douglas Haskell described Googie's abstract style and said that "if it looks like a bird, it must be a geometric bird." Additionally, buildings must appear to defy gravity, as Haskell noted: "whenever possible, the building should hang from the sky." Haskell's third principle for Googie was that it had more of a theme, more than one structural system. Due to its need to draw the attention of cars moving along the strip commercial, Googie was not a style known for its subtlety.

Another Googie-style building is the Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), designed by James Langenheim of William Pereira and Charles Luckman") and built during 1961.

One of the remaining Googie-style self-service restaurants, Harvey's Broiler (Paul Clayton, 1958), later Johnie's Broiler in Downey "Downey (California)"), California, was partially demolished in 2006. However, through the efforts of citizens, the city of Downey, and historic preservationists, the structure was rebuilt and reopened in 2009 as a Bob's Big Boy restaurant.

Another remaining example of Googie architecture still in operation is the main terminal at Washington-Dulles International Airport, designed by Eero Saarinen in 1958. This terminal exemplifies the enormous roof pitch, large windows, and liberal use of concrete, somewhat similar to the TWA Flight Center designed by Saarinen.

By the end of the 1960s, following the Apollo 11 moon landing, the rise of green movements against nuclear energy, and the de-escalation of the space race and the atomic age, Googie began to fall out of fashion.[16] The architectural community rarely appreciated or accepted Googie, considering it too flashy and vernacular for academic praise,[17] and so did the architecture of the 1960s. 1970, especially the international style "Rationalism (architecture)"), abandoned Googie. As Hess points out, beginning in the 1970s, commercial buildings were intended to blend into the urban environment and not draw attention. The publication of Googie by Alan Hess in 1986 inspired a new appreciation of the style. Despite Googie's humble origins, Hess writes that "Googie's architecture is an important part of suburban history."[21] Googie was a symbol of the early days of car culture.

One of the first organizations in the country to advocate for the preservation of Googie's architecture was the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee, which was formed in 1984 in response to the demolition of Ship's Coffee Shop in Westwood and Tiny Naylor's Drive-In in Hollywood.[22] Despite the loss of these and the original Googie's in Hollywood, other Googie's coffee shops, including Norms Restaurants,[23] Shop,[24]​ and Wich Stand[25]​ have received landmark designations. The world's oldest McDonald's in Downey and the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy in Burbank have also been preserved and restored.[26]​.

In Wildwood (New Jersey), New Jersey, a "Doo Wop Preservation League" works with local business and property owners, city planning and zoning officials, and the state historic preservation office, to help ensure that remaining historic structures are preserved. The Wildwood high-rise hotel district has been the first in the US to enforce "Doo Wop" design guidelines for new construction.[27]​.

Architect Michael Hsu designed several restaurants for Austin-based restaurant P. Terry's in the Googie style. Each location has a unique design, with oblique shapes, color and large geometric ceilings.[28][29]​.

Googie strongly influenced retrofuturism. The cartoon-like style is aptly exemplified in the Jetsons cartoon, and at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, is Googie Tomorrowland. The three classic Googie zones were Miami Beach, where commercial structures were inspired by the resort of Morris Lapidus" and other hotel designers, the first phase of Las Vegas, and Southern California, where Richard Neutral" built a drive-through church in Garden Groove").

Googie preservation groups.

Googie's beginnings are in the Streamline moderne architecture (a branch of the art deco style) of the 1930s. automobiles, cities no longer had to be focused on a city center, but could extend to the suburbs, where business hubs could be interspersed with residential areas. Suburbs offered less congestion by offering the same businesses, but accessible by car. Instead of a main store in the center, companies now had several stores in suburban areas. This new trend required owners and architects to develop a visual image for customers to recognize from the road. communication.[2]​.

The new smaller suburban drive-thru restaurants were essentially architectural signs advertising the business to vehicles on the road. This was achieved through the use of bold style choices, including large towers with raised signs, bold neon lettering, and circular pavilions.[3] Hess writes that due to the increase in mass production and travel during the 1930s, Streamline Moderne became popular due to the high-energy silhouettes its elegant designs created. These buildings featured rounded edges, large pylons and neon lights, all symbolizing, according to Hess, "invisible forces of speed and energy", reflecting the influx of mobility brought by automobiles, locomotives and zeppelins.[4]​.

Streamline Moderne, like Googie, was designed to look futuristic to mark the beginning of a new era: that of the automobile and other technologies. Drive-in services such as diners, movie theaters, and gas stations built with the same principles developed to serve the new American city.[4] Drive-in theaters had an advanced automobile-oriented architectural design, as they were built in an expressive, circular utilitarian style and surrounded by a parking lot, allowing all customers equal access from their cars.[5] These developments in consumer-oriented design set the stage for Googie during the 1950s, as during World War II World Cup of the 1940s and rationing caused a pause in development due to austerity imposed on the American public.

However, with the growing prosperity of the United States during the 1950s, American designers celebrated this new influx with optimistic designs. The development of nuclear energy and the reality of space flight captured the imagination of the public of the future.[7]​ Googie's architecture took advantage of this trend by incorporating energy into its design with elements such as the boomerang, diagonals, atomic explosions, and bright colors.[8]​ According to Hess, commercial architecture was influenced by the desires of the public.[5]​ The public was captivated by rockets and nuclear energy. Thus, to attract their attention, architects used them as motifs in their work. The buildings had been used to attract the attention of motorists since the invention of the automobile, but during the 1950s the style became widespread.

The identity of the first architect to practice the style is often disputed, although Wayne McAllister was one of the first and most influential architects to begin the style with his 1949 Bob's Big Boy restaurant in Burbank. McAllister began designing fashionable restaurants in Southern California, which led to a series of Streamline Moderne drive-ins during the 1930s; Although he had no formal training as an architect, he had been offered a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania's school of architecture due to his skill.[9] McAllister developed a brand for coffee chains by developing a style for each customer, which also allowed them to easily recognize a store from the street.[10]

Along with McAllister, Googie's prolific architects included John Lautner, Douglas Honnold, and the team of Louis Armet and Eldon Davis of the firm Armet & Davis, which they founded in 1947. Also instrumental in developing the style was designer Helen Liu Fong, a member of the firm Armet and Davis. Joining the firm during 1951, he created Googie interiors such as those at Johnie's Coffee Shop at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, the first Norms restaurant,[12] and the Holiday Bowl on Crenshaw Boulevard.

America's interest in space flight had a significant influence on Googie's unique style of architecture. During the 1950s, space travel became a reality for the first time in history. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite to reach Earth orbit. The Soviet Union then launched Vostok 1 carrying the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into Earth orbit in 1961. The Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations made competition with the Soviets for dominance in space a national priority of considerable urgency and importance. This marked the beginning of the so-called "space race."

Googie-style signs typically feature bold, sharp angles, intended to suggest the aerodynamic characteristics of a rocket. Furthermore, at the time, singular architecture was a form of architectural expressionism, as space rockets were technological novelties at the time.

The cantilevered structures, acute angles, illuminated plastic panels, free-form boomerang, and the shapes and cutouts of the artist's palette "Palette (paint)"), and tail fins "Fin (automobile)") on the buildings marked Googie architecture, which was despicable by some architects of today's high art Modernism, but had some defenders during the postmodern period at the turn of the century. The common elements that generally distinguish Googie from other forms of architecture are:.

The boomerang shape was another design element that captured movement. It was used structurally in place of a pillar or aesthetically as a stylized arrow. Hess writes that the boomerang was a stylistic interpretation of a directional energy field.[14]​.

Editor Douglas Haskell described Googie's abstract style and said that "if it looks like a bird, it must be a geometric bird." Additionally, buildings must appear to defy gravity, as Haskell noted: "whenever possible, the building should hang from the sky." Haskell's third principle for Googie was that it had more of a theme, more than one structural system. Due to its need to draw the attention of cars moving along the strip commercial, Googie was not a style known for its subtlety.

Another Googie-style building is the Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), designed by James Langenheim of William Pereira and Charles Luckman") and built during 1961.

One of the remaining Googie-style self-service restaurants, Harvey's Broiler (Paul Clayton, 1958), later Johnie's Broiler in Downey "Downey (California)"), California, was partially demolished in 2006. However, through the efforts of citizens, the city of Downey, and historic preservationists, the structure was rebuilt and reopened in 2009 as a Bob's Big Boy restaurant.

Another remaining example of Googie architecture still in operation is the main terminal at Washington-Dulles International Airport, designed by Eero Saarinen in 1958. This terminal exemplifies the enormous roof pitch, large windows, and liberal use of concrete, somewhat similar to the TWA Flight Center designed by Saarinen.

By the end of the 1960s, following the Apollo 11 moon landing, the rise of green movements against nuclear energy, and the de-escalation of the space race and the atomic age, Googie began to fall out of fashion.[16] The architectural community rarely appreciated or accepted Googie, considering it too flashy and vernacular for academic praise,[17] and so did the architecture of the 1960s. 1970, especially the international style "Rationalism (architecture)"), abandoned Googie. As Hess points out, beginning in the 1970s, commercial buildings were intended to blend into the urban environment and not draw attention. The publication of Googie by Alan Hess in 1986 inspired a new appreciation of the style. Despite Googie's humble origins, Hess writes that "Googie's architecture is an important part of suburban history."[21] Googie was a symbol of the early days of car culture.

One of the first organizations in the country to advocate for the preservation of Googie's architecture was the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee, which was formed in 1984 in response to the demolition of Ship's Coffee Shop in Westwood and Tiny Naylor's Drive-In in Hollywood.[22] Despite the loss of these and the original Googie's in Hollywood, other Googie's coffee shops, including Norms Restaurants,[23] Shop,[24]​ and Wich Stand[25]​ have received landmark designations. The world's oldest McDonald's in Downey and the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy in Burbank have also been preserved and restored.[26]​.

In Wildwood (New Jersey), New Jersey, a "Doo Wop Preservation League" works with local business and property owners, city planning and zoning officials, and the state historic preservation office, to help ensure that remaining historic structures are preserved. The Wildwood high-rise hotel district has been the first in the US to enforce "Doo Wop" design guidelines for new construction.[27]​.

Architect Michael Hsu designed several restaurants for Austin-based restaurant P. Terry's in the Googie style. Each location has a unique design, with oblique shapes, color and large geometric ceilings.[28][29]​.

Googie strongly influenced retrofuturism. The cartoon-like style is aptly exemplified in the Jetsons cartoon, and at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, is Googie Tomorrowland. The three classic Googie zones were Miami Beach, where commercial structures were inspired by the resort of Morris Lapidus" and other hotel designers, the first phase of Las Vegas, and Southern California, where Richard Neutral" built a drive-through church in Garden Groove").

Googie preservation groups.