Southern California transitions into the modern era
Fearing they might be perceived as old-fashioned and out of touch with the forward tilt of the times, many other businesses jumped on the modernist bandwagon. In fact, by the early 1950s, there wasn’t any one particular type of business, somewhere along the boulevard, that had not been upgraded in the modern motif.
Grocery stores, gas stations, office buildings, banks, city halls, courthouses, schools, and even houses of worship all were adapted to the whimsical, Southern California, mid-century modern themes, which most definitely did not adhere to that east coast “form follows function” nonsense.
On the west coast, the built environment was all about fun, no matter what shape it might take. In the Southland of the 50s and 60s, the carwash was a cosmic way station along the suburban track between home base and the Piggly Wiggly. And the bowling alleys, those great monuments to mid-century modernism, they were the neighborhood play stations of the suburban stratosphere.
It was here, out on the Southland’s commercial strips and suburban boulevards, that most Southern Californians (the masses of us) discovered, and fell in love with, modern design, thus assuring its place as the dominate commercial form.
There was just something irrepressibly uplifting about the overt whimsicality and irreverence of the Southland’s flippant strain of modernism that synced up perfectly with the sanguine spirit of the times, and the holiday atmosphere of the place. It was such an intoxicating blend of culture, climate, and character that it was inevitable we would want to take it home with us.
Bonus Track
If you would like to know more, heres a full length documentary on west coast modernism call Coast Modern.