Covina Bowl; Covina, CA; November 10, 2021. In the process of being torn down. All that’s left is the sign and entryway. #covinabowl #covina #california #sangabrielvalley #googie #googiearchitecture #signs #vintagesigns #midcenturymodern #mcm (at Historic Covina Bowl) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWHGn5pBRtm/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Every time I’m in Chicago, I make it a point to shoot Pride Cleaners. These pics are from my most recent visit, last July. As I wrote in an earlier post, this bucketlister is a stunning example of #Googie architecture, adding a dash of Jetsons sophistication to the corner of East 79th Street and St. Lawrence Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood since 1959. The South Side building has hardly been touched since, making it a perfect time capsule of this optimistic style of architecture. Chicago is an architectural treasure trove, and lovers of modernism can find many fine examples of the works of Mies van der Rohe, Bertrand Goldberg and others. But it pays to go off the beaten path and explore the greater Chicagoland. We owe this beauty to Gerald Siegwart, whose creation has been justly praised by critic Lee Bey as “one of the city’s finest and most exuberant examples of postwar modernism.” Siegwart’s thinking, explains Bey, was to create a structure that conveyed the modern advances in dry cleaning that offered customers faster, more efficient service. How sad that most new dry cleaners today — or most other businesses for that matter — are content to disappear into a bland strip mall or retreat into a gray box that won’t offend sensibilities. Where’s the pride and joy these days? Head to my story to see more photos of Pride Cleaners from an earlier post, on last year’s Pride Sunday, of course. #retrologist #chicagoland #windycity #googiearchitecture #pride (at Pride Cleaners) https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-5UoIlZoF/?igshid=rza5h9sml7tv

This spaceship-looking building in historic Milwaukee-Junction was built in 1971 as the then-new Stanley's Mannia Café. Stanley Hong came to Detroit in the 1930s from China's Canton Province, now known as Guangdong, working for a Chinese restaurant located in the Black Bottom area. Beginning in 1940, Mr. Hong would go into business on his own, starting with the original Mannia Café, once located at 565 East Canfield and Hastings Street (demolished for Detroit Medical Center expansion). The new Stanley's Mannia Café came next and became among the city's most popular restaurants, frequently by many of Detroit's entertainment and political elite, particularly in the African-American community. Hong also operated Stanley's Other Place, located at 2411 West 8 Mile Road, which opened in 1978 and closed in 2014. The structure was designed by Nathan Johnson & Associates, headed by pioneering Detroit-based African-American architect, Nathan Johnson. It is an example of Googie architecture, which gets its name from a long gone coffeehouse in West Hollywood, designed by John Lautner, a pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright. In the early 1990s, Stanley's became "the original epicenter of the rap music club scene in the early '90s in Detroit.", according to Paul Rosenberg, Detroit native and music executive, when another Detroiter, Maurice Malone, a clothing designer, founded Rhythm Kitchen, a weekly underground night that became a platform for many up-and-coming artists in Detroit hip-hop, including a young Marshall Mathers. Stanley's Mannia Café closed in 1995 and later served two stints as a church - Omega Baptist and Grace Fellowship Baptist - before closing for good. Despite being vacant, the structure was recently designated a local historic district by the City of Detroit, a testament to its importance on a multitude of levels. #Detroit #MilwaukeeJunction #Googie #GoogieArchitecture #Modernism #NathanJohnsonandAssociates #archi_ologie #deserve2preserve #RawDetroit #PureMichigan #PureMittigan #MotorCityShooters #PureDetroit313 #DepictTheD #VisitDetroit #Michiganders #ThisPlaceMatters #ThisPlaceMattersDetroit #MichiganPlacesMatter #SavingPlaces #GalaxyS10 #withGalaxy (at Milwaukee Junction, Detroit) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxKx7IcA1-2/?igshid=e5yey2r4xm53

night at biff´s coffee shop

Shooting Pride Cleaners in Chicago was the pride and joy of a recent trip to Chicago. This bucketlister is a stunning example of #Googie architecture, adding a dash of Jetsons sophistication to the corner of East 79th Street and St. Lawrence Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood since 1959. The South Side building has hardly been touched since, making it a perfect time capsule of this optimistic style of architecture. Chicago is a architectural treasure trove, and lovers of modernism can find many fine examples of the works of Mies van see Rohe, Bertrand Goldberg and others. But it pays to go off the beaten path and explore the greater Chicagoland. We owe this beauty to Gerald Siegwart, whose creation has been justly praised by critic Lee Bey as “one of the city’s finest and most exuberant examples of postwar modernism.” Siegwart’s thinking, explains Bey, was to create a structure that conveyed the modern advances in dry cleaning that offered customers faster, more efficient service. How sad that most new dry cleaners today — or most other businesses for that matter — are content to disappear into a bland strip mall or retreat into a gray box that won’t offend sensibilities. Where’s the pride and joy these days? Well, at least we have Pride Cleaners to show us how it’s done! #retrologist #chicagoland #windycity #googiearchitecture #pride https://www.instagram.com/p/BzVhvSklZ70/?igshid=zqps6b1smljh

For those of you who are interested in the former Stanley's Mannia Café, here you go. #Detroit #MilwaukeeJunction #Googie #GoogieArchitecture #Modernism #NathanJohnsonandAssociates #archi_ologie #deserve2preserve #RawDetroit #PureMichigan #PureMittigan #MotorCityShooters #PureDetroit313 #DepictTheD #VisitDetroit #Michiganders #ThisPlaceMatters #ThisPlaceMattersDetroit #MichiganPlacesMatter #SavingPlaces #GalaxyS10 #withGalaxy (at Milwaukee Junction, Detroit) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxv7mOTgpW0/?igshid=9nrgzsc50rfp

The 1962 ‘Jetsons’ / Googie architecture of the TWA terminal at JFK airport - now a retro futurist hotel… super cool… @twahotel #googie #googiearchitecture #jfk #nyc #catchmeifyoucan #twa #twahotel #jetsons #futurist (at John F. Kennedy International Airport) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch_AZfBI2nq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=