The American SetA Sunset Boulevard Coffee Shop Gave Googie Its Name
The movement that put swooping roofs and cantilevered signs on American boulevards takes its name from a single Los Angeles address. In 1949, Googie's Coffee Shop opened at 8100 Sunset Boulevard, sharing the block with Schwab's Pharmacy. It was a modest restaurant, not a landmark anyone set out to build, and it drew a loyal crowd of young regulars. Yet the word on its sign became the label for an entire style of postwar design, one that collectors of midcentury architecture and ephemera still pursue. For anyone who treasures the drawings, signage and photography of that era, the origin point is a counter-service coffee shop on the Strip.
With reporting from The Collector.
