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In 1949, Mortimer and Lillian Burton opened
a coffee shop on Sunset Boulevard and named
it Googie’s, Lillian’s nickname.1 To design the
space, they hired a young architect and disciple
of Frank Lloyd Wright, John Lautner, who
had been working in Southern California since
the mid-1930s designing both residential and
commercial buildings in a new architectural
style. Within three years, that humble coffee
shop was synonymous with a distinct style
of architecture and interiors specific to mid-
century Southern California.2

In 1952, architectural critic Douglas Haskell
wrote an article published in House and
Home titled “Googie Architecture.”3 He used
Googie’s as both the name and a definitive
example of this new style, presenting a fictional
conversation between a college professor and
his students regarding its definition: it must
look organic, but be abstract; it ignores gravity;
it can use any material available; and it exercises
freedom of equipment.4 The fictional discus-
sion of the style was Haskell’s mechanism for
expressing its appeal, but also his disdain for
these types of commercial buildings as being
outlandish, excessive and tacky.