'Visual pollution'
But there was a backlash to this aesthetic. As the environmental movement developed in the 1960s, opposition to the conspicuous Googie style grew. Critics called it "visual pollution."
"Critics hated this populist, roadside commercial California architecture," Hess said. Googie style fell out of fashion in the 1970s as fast-food style favored dark colors, brick and mansard roofs.
McDonald's new prototype became a low-profile mansard roof and brick design with shingle texture. Its arches moved from atop the building to signposts and became McDonald's corporate logo.
"McDonald's and Jack in the Box unfurled their neon and Day Glo banners and architectural containers against the endless sky," the New York Times said in 1978. They have been "toned down with the changing taste of the '60s and '70s." And with the growth of mass communications advertising campaigns, brands no longer relied on architectural features to stand out — they could simply flood the television airwaves.
'Soulless little boxes': Why Pizza Hut's red roofs and McDonald's play places have disappeared
For decades, bright, playful and oddly shaped fast-food restaurants dotted the roadside along America's highways.
www.ksl.com
