Authors on Architecture: Murphy & Hess on Googie
SAH/SCC Zoom Presentation
Sunday, May 01, 2022
Come explore the architectural
drawings of Googie masters Armet Davis Newlove and celebrate the publication of
the new book Googie Modern (Angel
City Press, 2022) by Michael Murphy and Alan Hess, both of whom will join us
for this program.
Googie Modern, conceived,
curated, and designed by Michael Murphy, is a feast of mid-century modern
design. Each remarkable rendering demonstrates the passion and precision that
went into every Armet Davis Newlove creation. Googie Modern is itself a
monument to the excitement and optimism that once lined the streets of
mid-century America.
Celebrated expert on Googie
architecture, historian and writer Hess explains the first Googies, a Sunset
Boulevard coffee shop designed by John Lautner, FAIA (1911-1994) , and
relates how Armet & Davis took over the reins, remodeling Lautner’s design
in 1955, and turning it into a model for every major coffee shop/diner that
emerged in succeeding decades. In its earliest days, the shocking architecture
was ridiculed by critics as “kitsch” and “unrealistic,” and worse—”too
commercial.” The attacks by critics (read: architecture snobs) fell on the deaf
ears of restaurateurs and the public, who were literally eating up the
accessibility, the fun, and the futurism.
Murphy is
a former agency creative turned independent designer and real-estate
entrepreneur. He met Victor Newlove and viewed his first Googie renderings when
he was still in junior high school, and those images were locked in his brain.
They would eventually define his passion. Prior to creating this book, Murphy
designed “Vedem Underground,” an exhibition about a protest magazine crated by
Nazi camp prisoners, that Smithsonian magazine hailed as one of the 10
“Don’t Miss” exhibits of 2017-2018. Murphy curated and designed two exhibitions
with companion books about Santa Monica, and the book Los Angeles: A Look
Back to Postcards of the 1930s & 1940s from Today (Immaginare Press,
2019)with his colleague, photographer Jens Lucking, who also
contributes to this book.
Hess has written extensively on modernism in the West, most notably Googie:
Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture (Chronicle Books, 1986) and the update, Googie
Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture (Chronicle Books, 2004).
Authors on Architecture: Hess &
Murphy on Googie—Sunday, May 1, 2022; 1-2:30 PM PST; $5; go to www.sahscc.org and pay via PayPal or mail in order form with
check; Zoom connection information sent upon registration.
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