Beverly Hills Goes Modern, Googie Style
$15 (1 hr)
Googie architecture — Southern California’s unique contribution to Midcentury Modernism — has a significant foothold in Beverly Hills from Restaurant Row to the gull-wing gas station by City Hall. With modern shapes and materials, Googie captured the excitement and optimism sweeping the nation after decades of war and depression — and made it part of everyone's daily life.
Alan Hess’ talk explores both famous and forgotten landmarks of this style and its roots in California’s maverick outlook on design. The presentation includes brilliant hand-drawn renderings from his new book with Michael Murphy Googie Modern: Architectural drawings of Armet Davis Newlove. A book signing will follow the talk.
About Alan Hess
Architect and historian Alan Hess is author of twenty-one books on Modern architecture and urbanism in the twentieth century; his subjects include John Lautner, Oscar Niemeyer, Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as the Ranch House, Las Vegas, and Palm Springs. He is a Commissioner on the California State Historical Resources Commission, and serves on the boards of Preserve Orange County, Palm Springs Modernism Week, and DesignOnScreen.
He has been the architecture critic of the San Jose Mercury News, a contributor to The Architects Newspaper, grant recipient from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Clarence Stein Foundation, and a National Arts Journalism Fellow.
He has helped to landmark buildings from the Modern era, including CBS Television City, Bullock’s Pasadena, Norm’s La Cienega Coffee Shop, and the oldest remaining McDonald’s stand. Awards for his work conserving Modern architecture include the Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Docomomo/US's Award of Excellence, and the President’s Award from the Los Angeles Conservancy. His latest book, Googie Modern: Architectural Drawings of Armet Davis Newlove was published in March 2022. He is currently writing a history of the Palm Springs School of Architecture.
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