Chris Nichols on Eldon Davis, father of Googie architecture

Eldon Davis, an enthusiastic promoter of Googie architecture, died Friday at the age of 94.

He was the “Davis” in Armet-Davis architects, best known for the exotic but friendly design of diners like Pann’s and Norm’s – the kind of places that offered customers a glance at a streamlined future.

At the Davis-designed Astro restaurant in Silverlake, Chris Nichols, an expert on the style, spoke about Googie architecture and Eldon Davis.

Nichols describes Googie style. "It's a Los Angeles phenomena. It's a wild, spinning, electric, on-fire kind of architecture that sort of enlivens any intersection it hits. Swoopy roofs, lots of tropical landscaping, battered stone where glass and steel and formica meet the primitive.

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

"The best is probably Pann's, that's still in tact, but the one we're in now, Astro, is like a big Claes Oldenburg arrowhead. It's a sculptural shape sitting on the corner that draws you in and makes you come and have that piece of boysenberry pie."

Nichols explains what "Googie" means. "The first one was Googie's Restaurant on the Sunset Strip, but Googie's was, I understand, named after the comic strip character Barney Google.

"In addition to making the building stop your car, they had these open kitchens. You know, there were these sort of exhibition cooking. There was cantilevered counter stools that weren't bolted to the floor. All sorts of strange little innovations that were really important to the restaurant industry, but not really noticeable to you, except that it was a more comfortable and interesting and special place to have a meal."

Davis designed restaurants around the country. "Armet-Davis did those Shoney's, Armet-Davis did all the Big Boy restaurants around the country. Azar's, and Kip's, and Shoney's, and all the things that came out of Bob's in L.A. Armet and Davis made it so effortless that it feels like a shorthand for a restaurant when you see one of their roofs, when you see a Naugahyde booth, when you see a wood formica tabletop."

Chris Nichols writes the “Ask Chris” feature in Los Angeles Magazine.