Spectacular carchitecture
SCENIC DRIVE
by Charlene Rooke
We are living in the carchitecture age, an era in which most buildings are designed to be seen and appreciated from moving vehicles. The kitschy drive-ins and awkward strip malls of the past are giving way to contemporary structures that relate to their freewheeling locations in smart, efficient and even beautiful ways. That it’s happening now - at a time when compact hybrid-electric vehicles pull up next to gas-guzzling luxury SUVs - shows that our society’s love-hate relationship with the car is stronger than ever…
As culture sped up, carchitecture got bigger. Passing motorists had only a few seconds of viewing time, so buildings bulked up to be noticed. Formerly functional public structures like bridges became monumental, almost sculptural. The evolution of mega-vehicles also supersized carchitecture: From the wraparound windscreens of the 1950s to today’s gigantic SUVs, the windshield, our frame for viewing carchitecture, keeps getting bigger. As The New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp recently described the Los Angeles urban landscape, “If you want to make unity of the city’s architecture, you must get in the car and zigzag around town, turning the windshield this way and that, as if it were a lens, piling image next to image like a David Hockney photomontage.”
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On a related note is the type of (commercial) architecture that relies on cars to get you there:
Roadside Peek will take you on a roadside journey in time. Travel the roadside along the old routes across America. See the old motels, bowling alleys, drive-in theatres, neon signs, petrol pumps, googie sites, tiki villages, and other roadside treasures.
It all came together at the roadside drive-in restaurant. Here, sharp cars and splashy signage combined in the ultimate convergence of Americana modernity. Enticed by the towering, multi-colored signage, people came to eat and meet, all the while remaining in or around their status symbol on four wheels. The food was fast, the atmosphere friendly and largely provincial: it was like a local scene of what’s what, and who’s who.
A site devoted exclusively to finding the most memorable local eateries along the highways and back roads of America and Canada