Years ago, I found an amazing print in a box of old family photos. It was undated, unlabeled, and probably taken to show off my grandparents’ new car. But the star of the photo for me was the gigantic pumpkin building in the background. It was one of those roadside oddities (often referred to as…
It was a veritable juggernaut—the number and variety of roadside novelty (“vernacular,” “programmatic,” or “mimetic”) buildings that once dotted the urban landscape in Los Angeles. Like the examples featured in an related earlier post, these “hey-you-can’t miss-me!” buildings were made to pull automobile drivers right off the road—to eat, shop, or stay the night. Quirky,…
“Novelty,” “mimetic,” “programmatic,” “vernacular”—all are terms used to define the same crazy kind of “art imitates life” architecture that once dotted the L.A. cityscape (and much of the rest of the country, for that matter) starting in the 1920’s. You knew it when you saw it (and that was the point, of course). Puppies, chickens,…
