Edited by Jim Heimann
As a consequence of the rise of the automobile, buildings sprang up along California's roadsides, vying for the attention of passing potential customers by any means necessary: gas stations shaped like giant airplanes, photo shops resembling enormous cameras, motels seemingly sprung from a bizarre parallel universe ruled by David Lynch, Lewis Carroll, and a playing child, and snack bars and restaurants that inflated everything that could be quickly eaten and drunk on the go to ludicrous proportions: monstrous donuts and hot dogs, gigantic coffee cups, kettles, and six-packs, monster pigs and giant fish. Add to that countless oversized dogs, giant owls, mega toads, and naturally large dinosaurs whose fully air-conditioned abdominal cavities beckoned passersby to consume ice cream, donuts, hamburgers, and pancakes with maple syrup. A freak show of architectural mayhem, a nightmare for any building inspector, but for all those unfortunate souls who had to grow up in the uniformity of American suburbia or the German gable-roof horror of terraced and housing estates, a liberating escape from the terror of conformity, a free-for-all party on both sides of the road.
From this expanded new edition of Jim Heimann's classic on pop, camp, fun, and trash architecture along the streets of California breathes the gasoline- and deep-fried-grease-laden, and sometimes cotton-candy-like, spirit of freedom—shrill, colorful, naive, and bizarre. Expanded with a multitude of new images of surreal and hallucinatory roadside attractions, this volume is a treasure trove for all fans of eccentric novelty architecture and offers a deep glimpse into the psyche of a car-crazy society.
- Taschen, 2025
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Hardcover, 480 pages
- 6 x 9 inches
