It was with reluctance that I took on Ultra Swank's assignment of a segment on Googie design. I am not an expert. Art historians and critics can be a vicious group. One false move and I could be forever condemned to an underworld of Louis the XIV basement rec. rooms accented with a million velvet Elvis paintings! Oh well, maybe they've got some Pepsi in the fridge?

Googie is a sub-style suburban overpass of the great and mighty 'Modern' design and architecture highway. Simply stated - Googie is 'Space-Age' and George Jetson lived in a completely Googie world. The term comes from 1949 and a cute Los Angeles wife whose nickname was... you guessed it, Googie! (the style of which we speak is sometimes called 'Doo-Wop', but that's not a good nickname for your wife). This nice lady's husband commissioned, soon to be famous, architect John Lautner to design a coffee shop which he named in her honor (the coffee shop was torn down in the 1980's — we aren't sure about the nice lady).

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Atomic Lounge is a 90 minute documentary that looks back at the Space-Age inspired architecture, design, fashion, and lifestyle of post-WWII America. The film will explore the conditions that led to a unique time in history when Americans experienced a dual sense of optimism for the future and fear of impeding nuclear holocaust. This period represents the critical point in the Western world when a culture of sincerity, confidence and conformity gave way to a general atmosphere of irony and pessimism.

More information about the documentary at Scribble Media.

For those of you who saw the posts about the Disneyland home movies taken in 1956, only a year after the park opened will most likely appreciate that the author of those videos have found another treasure from his grandparents home movie archive, San Francisco in 1958. The movie guides us around a few urban scenes, trolley cars and the Golden Gate bridge among many other things. The scene from inside the trolley car reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock's movie Vertigo made in the same year. Let's hope that he next time finds a home movie from New York around the same period. Mad Men anyone?

The JFK Trans World Airlines (TWA) terminal was designed by the great Eero Saarinen. Built in a very modernist and expressionistic style it was finished in 1962 and set the standard for how modern jet travel was perceived back in its glory days. The Museum of the City of New York had a exhibition about Mr. Saarinens works back in November and December 2009, which I was not aware of. Maybe someone reading this experienced it though? How was it? Do tell. (Via)

Wednesday inspiration. The Stahl House, also known as Case Study House #22 was finished in 1959 and is most likely the most famous house from the CSH program with help from famed photographer Julius Schulman. (Via)