Googies on Sunset Blvd |
I call it serendipity.
In my third year in Architecture school, a senior student was wandering the halls, and we started talking over my drawings for a project that was meant to be an urban school. Probably out of stubbornness, I navigated the design towards my desired aesthetic.
My slightly revised project, a year after I graduated. |
I identified with the mix of organic design and futuristic ideas -- something that Lautner no doubt gained from being an apprentice under Frank Lloyd Wright, and from experiencing the spirit of the times of the 40s and 50s in Los Angeles.
Flash forward 18 years or so, and I found Alan Hess' book on Googie architecture -- his original book, out of print since the 80s, is what restarted the interest in Googie architecture. BTW, if you're at the downtown Powell's, you might be lucky enough to find a copy of it. This was the first time I learned about Lautner's Googies, despite my having a couple of books on his works.
Space Needle, Seattle WA |
The pinnacle of Googie Architecture, literally, might be considered the Space Needle in Seattle, and the 1962 World's Fair. Not to oversimplify the complexity of the times, especially if you consider the state of race relations and rights, but the 50s and 60s exhibited a great deal of optimism that mankind could solve any problem, if it set its mind to it.
Los Angeles Airport |
Maybe the appeal (for me) is that it reminds me of growing up and watching The Jetsons and The Flintstones, with their stylized interpretations of modernism.
But alas, Googie is not respected uniformly, and is attacked derisively by developers looking to tear them down.
I sometimes do not understand preservationists who would rather save a drab building simply because it is old, rather than save iconoclastic structures that deliver a strong sense of place and time within American and local history.
Denny's in Ballard, Seattle WA |
1 comment:
Glad to see that Googie and Lautner are still having an impact.
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