FrogBlog | Translating Los Angeles

Two more examples of fabulous signs in prime Googie style.

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank:

This is actually the very first building done for the chain by architect Wayne McAllister; it’s been sitting there in Burbank since 1949 and was declared a California Point of Historical Interest in 1993. Which is more than merited, because McAllister and his very distinct take on form, function, color and fun paved the way from Streamline Modern to Googie.

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank was designed as a drive-in and the present owners revived the car-hop service (at least on weekends). They also restored the Big Boy’s sign to its full glory. Well done, I say.

Another chain of diners, very unique to SoCal, is Norms:

This sign is already a slightly later adaption of the original style, which can be seen here. But the basic strong language of form and color never changed, which is laudable. The first Norms was designed by the architectural firm of Armet & Davis, a company enormously influential in defining this very Californian style of the ’50s.

And yes, Norms never closes – since 1949.

So we finally made it to the Hoover Dam. We were prepared to be impressed. And we were, when we saw this:

This is the new Hoover Dam Bypass; work started in 2005, it is scheduled to be finished in 2010. Then one will travel 840 feet (256 m) above the Colorado River on a four lane highway.

Two more closeups:

The Hoover Dam itself is a marvel of engineering, given the time it was built and the enormity of the task involved. But the new bypass is just overwhelming. Or WOW! With a well-deserved exclamation mark.

Out of Art Deco, enthusiastically adopted in the US, grew a style unique to the United States – Streamline Moderne. It evolved in the ’30s and was both a modern continuation and a reaction to Art Deco, which surprisingly enough is not a contradiction, although at first it seems to be one.

Streamline Moderne reflected the more austere economic times of the ’30s. Some Art Deco elements were kept, but generally sharp angles and lines became more aerodynamically rounded, excessive ornaments gave way to clean surfaces and – very important – modern materials like cement and glass were used to replace exotic woods and stone.

In Los Angeles the Lydecker House is usually quoted as a prime example of a residential building in the Streamline Moderne style. But there are many, many private houses around showing the rounded lines, the curved windows, the portholes so typical of that style.

Even more houses show only some of the elements – just some curved lines, one or two porthole windows; that was enough at that time to deem the house “modern” and satisfy the buyer that he or she was totally “with it.”

And then one can find something like this:

Here the theme of the rounded lines and the portholes has been taken to a certain extreme, in keeping with the name “The Good Ship Grace.” This building was originally a radio station for Christian broadcasting. Then the radio station moved out to Riverside and the structure just sits there – empty and as an example of a very unique American style.

With the weather report forecasting high temperatures of up to 93°F,  we started early  on our hike  in the  Deukmejian  Wilderness Park. This park is another one of those lovely areas which escaped  the fate of being  “developed”  through the City of Glendale buying the land and turning it into a recreational area.

It took only a very short while to discover a patch of green, dotted with lovely yellow flowers.

It turned out that these pretty little things are Ice Plants (Carpobrotus edulis),  quite aggressive invaders. Brought to California in the early 1900s as a stabilizer for soil along railroad tracks, Caltrans was one of the companies who planted thousands of acres  of  it all over Southern California. C. edulis, originally from Africa, took a good look around, decided that SoCal was just the place to be and started doing what C. edulis does best – it spread. And spread. And spread some more. Today the plant has become a serious ecological problem, posing a threat to the local flora and has to be fought.

The next pretty sight was the Californian State flower, the Golden Poppy (Eschscholzia californica).

Now this truly is a native plant and always lovely to look at. Not that the Ice Plant isn’t lovely, but I found it quite interesting  to see two plant species only about 20 paces apart from each other – one an intruder, one a native.