NOVELTY ARCHITECTURE

'Novelty architecture' is a type of architecture in which buildings and other structures are given unusual shapes as a novelty, such as advertising, notoriety as a landmark, or simple eccentricity of the owner or architect. Many examples of novelty architecture take the form of buildings that resemble the products sold inside to attract drive-by customers. Others are attractions all by themselves, such as giant animals, fruits, and vegetables, or replicas of famous buildings. And others are merely unusual shapes or made of unusual building materials.

Some hotel casinos on the Las Vegas Strip can be considered novelty architecture, including the pyramid-shaped Luxor Hotel and the New York-New York Hotel & Casino, a building designed to look like the New York City skyline.
Novelty architecture is also used extensively in amusement parks such as Disneyland to fit their playful and sometimes retro theme.

Contents

Programmatic architecture

Water towers

Storage tanks

Giant sculptures

Googie/populuxe architecture

Other

Deconstructivism

Gallery

Novelty statues

See also

External links

Programmatic architecture

Programmatic (also known as mimetic or mimic) architecture is characterized by constructions in the forms of objects not normally associated with buildings, such as characters, animals, people or household objects. There may be an element of caricature or a cartoonish element associated with the architecture.

★ Lucy the Elephant, an architectural folly in Margate City, New Jersey

★ Longaberger Company's head office in Newark, Ohio which is in the form of a giant basket
In the 1930s, as automobile travel became popular in the United States, one way of attracting motorists to a diner, coffee shop, or roadside attraction was to build the building in an unusual shape, especially the shape of the things sold there. "Mimic" architecture became a trend, and many roadside coffee shops were built in the shape of giant coffee pots; hot dog stands were built in the shape of giant hot dogs; and fruit stands were built in the shape of oranges or other fruit.

★ Tail O' the Pup, a hot dog-shaped hot dog stand in Los Angeles, California

★ Brown Derby, a derby-shaped restaurant

★ Bondurant's Pharmacy, a mortar-and-pestle pharmacy in Lexington, Kentucky

Water towers

Water towers, often a prominent feature in a small town, have often been shaped or decorated to look like everyday objects.

★ Peachoid, a peach-shaped water tower in Gaffney, South Carolina. There are other peach-shaped water towers in Perry, Georgia and Clanton, Alabama.

★ Coffee pot water tower in Stanton, Iowa

★ Ketchup bottle water tower in Collinsville, Illinois

★ Strawberry water tower in Poteet, Texas

★ Corn cob water tower in Rochester, Minnesota

★ Fishing bobber-shaped water tower in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota

★ Teakettle water tower in Lindstrom, Minnesota

Storage tanks

Several breweries and other businesses have designed holding tanks in the shape of giant cans of beer or other containers.

★ "World's Largest Six-Pack" brewery holding tanks in La Crosse, Wisconsin

★ "World's Largest Hormel Chili Can" in Beloit, Wisconsin

Giant sculptures

Another aspect of novelty architecture is sculptures of ordinary items scaled to enormous size.

★ Various roadside parks and attractions in the U.S. feature giant sculptures of Paul Bunyan and dinosaurs.

★ Louisville Slugger Museum, a building in Louisville, Kentucky that features a giant baseball bat

★ Cleveland Airport, which includes giant "paper" aircraft in one terminal.

★ Cowboy boots at North Star Mall, San Antonio, Texas

★ Nut-shaped scupltures in at least two American cities, Brunswick, Missouri and Seguin, Texas are claimed to be "the world's largest pecan". [1] The Brunswick pecan is much larger and heavier, but the Seguin pecan is arguably more realistically rendered.

★ A giant rotating candy bar, reading "Curtiss Baby Ruth" on one side and "Curtis Butterfinger" on the other, at the former Curtiss Candy Company factory in Franklin Park, Illinois, since acquired (and redesigned) by Nestlé.

★ Gigantic baseball paraphenalia and other novelties, such as bats and gloves, team logos, "big apples", and even supersized Land O' Lakes milk bottles, at various baseball parks including Yankee Stadium, Comerica Park, AT&T Park, Anaheim Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Shea Stadium, and the Metrodome.

Googie/populuxe architecture

:''See main article: Googie architecture''
Architecture popular in the 1950s-1960s in southern California and in Florida featured sharp corners, tilted roofs, starburst designs, and fanciful shapes. This came to be known as ''Googie'' or ''populuxe'' architecture.

Other

Long-established firms whose features are well-known could still qualify as novelty architecture. A couple of examples would be McDonald's original golden-arches design, originating in California as many of the novelty designs have; and the self-referencing design of the White Castle restaurants.

Deconstructivism

Some critics claim that much of today's contemporary architecture under the guise of Deconstructivism is actually Novelty architecture. Practioners include leading architects such as Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid.

Gallery

Novelty statues

See also

★ Australia's Big Things

★ Faux château, a house built to look like a castle

★ Folly (also see )

★ Ice hotels, temporary hotels made of ice and snow, found in the coldest regions of the world

External links

★ Lotta Living is an online Community for fans of Googie, Roadside and Mid Century Modern architecture and pop culture

★ The Many Unusual Looking Buildings On Earth

★ Roadside America: Big Coffee Pots

★ Strange and Unusual Buildings – Several examples from across the U.S.