The euphoria about the future that followed World War II permeated the outlooks of architects, who, influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright and with ready access to remarkable new construction material and building techniques spawned by the war technologies, faced the intriguing prospect of redesigning the post war world. Initially the futuristic designs were outrageous, and detractors labeled these structures the Googie School of Architecture after a particularly outlandish coffee shop in Los Angeles. Googie would seem far from outlandish today as those once controversial design elements have become commonplace in both commercial and residential architecture. Author Alan Hess traces the evolution of these early post war designs i [Read More...]
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May 5th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
This book, quite simply, changed my life. After picking this little gem up off a bargain rack in an Albuquerque book store in 1987, I soon found myself enraptured with the imagery I had all but forgotten growing up in the late 50s and early 60s. Not a me-too bandwagon chaser of retro themes, I have since become quite a collector of my era’s decor, automobiles and publications… even started my own small castings/sculptural studio that has produced and sold a number of designs that have been well-received by the collectors who know my work.
I moved to Los Angeles in 1989, largely motivated by what I read in this book, and my obsession in finding the remaining treasures Hess listed. I was ecstatic to find my then-new digs 2 blocks away from the hallowed glass walls of Chips Coffee Shop in Hawthorne, CA! And thankfully it is still intact as of this writing (June 2002). May Googie live forever! And now, the search is on for another copy of the book, as I lost mine years ago. Nothing could please me more than to have the new copy signed by the author himself.