Editing Googie architecture (section)

==Characteristics==
[[File:Johnnie's Coffee Shop for Wiki 1.jpg|thumb|[[Johnie's Coffee Shop]] on [[Wilshire Boulevard]], Los Angeles, designed by [[Armet & Davis]]]]
[[File:Welcome to vegas.jpg|thumb|[[Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign]]]]

[[Cantilever]]ed structures, acute angles, illuminated plastic paneling, freeform [[boomerang]] and artist's [[Palette (painting)|palette]] shapes and cutouts, and [[Car tailfin|tailfins]] on buildings marked Googie architecture, which was contemptible to some architects of then-current High Art [[Modernism]], but had defenders during the [[Post-Modernism|post-Modern]] period at the end of the 20th century. The common elements that generally distinguish Googie from other forms of architecture are:

* '''Roofs sloping at an upward angle''': This is the one particular element in which architects were creating a unique structure. Many Googie style coffee shops, and other structures, have a roof that appears to be {{frac|2|3}} of an inverted obtuse triangle. An example of this is the famous, but now closed, [[Johnie's Coffee Shop]] on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
* '''Starbursts''': Starbursts are an ornament that is common with the Googie style, showing its Space Age and whimsical influences. Perhaps the most notable example of the starburst appears on the [[Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign|"Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign]]. The ornamental design is in the form of, as Hess writes, "a high-energy explosion".<ref>Hess 2004, p. 194</ref> This shape is an example of non-[[utilitarian design]], as the star shape has no actual function but merely serves as a design element.

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 rendering of a directional energy field.<ref>Hess 2004, p. 192</ref>

Editor Douglas Haskell described the abstract Googie style, saying that "If it looks like a bird, this must be a geometric bird."<ref name=Hess2004>Hess 2004, p. 68</ref> Also, the buildings must appear to defy gravity, as Haskell noted: "whenever possible, the building must hang from the sky".<ref name=Hess2004/> Haskell's third tenet for Googie was that it have more than one theme—more than one structural system.<ref name=Hess2004/> Because of its need to be noticed from moving automobiles along the commercial strip, Googie was not a style noted for its subtlety.

One of the more famous Googie buildings 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-styled drive-in restaurants, Harvey's Broiler (Paul Clayton, 1958), later [[Johnie's Broiler]] in [[Downey, 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 dramatic roof slope, large windows, and generous use of concrete, somewhat similar to Saarinen's [[TWA Flight Center]].