IF you've had the pancake breakfast at Pann's or braved the steak-and-eggs at Norm's you sort of know who Eldon Davis was. Davis was the "grandfather" of "Googie" architecture -- those space-age kidney shapes and swirls that have become short-hand for the era's (and the city's) "know-how" sensibility.
Tributes to Davis are coming in from all over. Below is a snip from KPPC, Pasadena City College's public radio station's blog:
Fans of 1950s style knew Eldon Davis for pioneering Googie architecture. You know it when you see it – at landmark L.A. diners including Norm’s, Johnie’s and Pann’s.
Historian Alan Hess describes Davis’ sensibility as “space-age” optimism and faith in technology. “Famous examples of modern architecture are homes for the well-to-do. What Eldon Davis did was apply modernism to the kinds of places that the average person lived in, ate at, drove by – in their daily life. That was why his contribution was so tremendous.”
Hess says Davis continued to design buildings until the end of his life. Eldon Davis was 94 years old when he died Friday in Los Angeles.
They saluted Davis with a little photo gallery here.
Makes you nostalgic for a fantasy future that only the past could imagine:
-- L.G.image zemistor, via flickr, creative commons
