BOBO’S BURGER

Family-owned fast-food joints played a quintessential role in establishing L.A.’s iconic Googie architectural style. In a city where the car’s presence was more prominent than the pedestrian’s, restaurant owners realized that they needed eye-catching architecture to draw drivers to their establishments. The Googie style offered an experimental and futuristic language that engaged the passing cars and defined part of L.A.’s urban fabric.

Our design concept for the Firestone location of Bobo’s Burgers draws inspiration from the bold and playful presence of many Googie structures. We wanted to acknowledge small fast-food chains and their importance in shaping L.A.’s built environment. We started with an offset A-frame that is easily digestible from a distance and modernizes the previous trapezoidal roof structure. The offset shifts the weight of the frontal façade so that the building feels heavier to the incoming car. During the design process, we realized that the existing site constraint provided an insufficient amount of space for Bobo’s new kitchen requirements. The design solves this problem by extending the space for the kitchen and ordering station in the direction parallel to the street. This inadvertently gives the building an emphasized front section, further imposing its presence on the street and to the moving car.

A corner of the façade is then cut away by a curvature that contrasts with the rigidity of the A-frame. The curved, transparent opening invites the passerby into the dining area through its gentle playfulness. The imposing, rigidity that draws in the car is combatted by the gentle curvature and the transparent windows so that the pedestrian can easily digest the structure from on foot as well.

When paired with the Bobo’s bright red, the structure is impossible to miss from the road. Bobo’s Firestone location contemporizes the brand’s cultural significance and plays with L.A.’s architectural language, acknowledging unique styles such as the Googie designs that are emblematic of L.A.’s fast-food history.

Location Los Angeles // Program Restaurant // Status Completed // Size 4,000 SF