Houston Googie?

[domus48]

"Would the RedCarpet Inn on 45 be considered Googie? It is not in great shape, but I have always liked this building... "

Could be "googie"... formerly this was a Howard Johnson's.

[marmer]

"Would the RedCarpet Inn on 45 be considered Googie? It is not in great shape, but I have always liked this building... "

Could be "googie"... formerly this was a Howard Johnson's.

Yeah, I'll give it a Googie thumbs up. Roofs that sweep down to the ground can be a Goog-ish feature.

[names]

Googie seems to mean anything that is gestural and expressionistic to the perception of the automobile driver. Never mind the fact that it's need to be noticed is directly related to the distraction of the driver; but why let an ethical logic impede the free market especially back in those times. Which is why I do not like Googie in principle; it's untalented imitators merely produced the campy & kitsch laden precursors to full blown Postmodernism.

The modern equivalent would be Hypergraphics.

[domus48]

“The modern equivalent would be Hypergraphics.”

Well, you get points for taking this topic to a place I never would have anticipated – and to a theoretical platform I have difficulty understanding (but maybe that’s the point of it). For those unfamiliar with this term, look up “Hypergraphics” on Wikipedia… see what I mean.

Your reference to post-modern – which is really a fancy term for kitsch – is probably closer to home. Both avenues are self serving but by far, post-modern is grating and often difficult to warm up to whereas Googie has an endearing effect due in part to its connection to a specific milieu.

The excellent book “Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture” by Alan Hess explores the roots of Googie and its link to the emerging car culture of the 50’s and early 60’s (which by then the car culture was firmly established).

For whatever reason – be it recollections of l-o-n-g vacations traveling in a car as a boy during the 1960's, or simply the dynamic interplay of forms and materials – Googie remains a favorite architectural form for me.

I wish Houston possessed more of it.

[sdmarc]

Is that this little guy?

]

The Delmar Field House is also mentioned:

"(1958) Milton McGinty

The thin-shell paraboloid roof canopy of this gymnasium represents a comparatively rare local use of a technology that was quite popular in American architecture during the late 1950s and early 1960s."

The Meadowcreek Village shelter was designed by Raymond Brogniez, who graduated from Harvard's Graduate School of Design under Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.