Cartoonitecture

What is cartoonitecture? Drive into the suburbs and go to the biggest new shopping center you can find.

1 minute read

November 13, 2001, 6:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


Cartoonitecture is "drive-by design that looks best at 70 mph. Flaunting gaudy colors and eye-catching gimmicks, these barnlike boxes stuffed with stuff draw attention any way they can... The problem isn't that one center has neon stripes and another looks like a Spanish villa on steroids; the Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles, shaped like a you-know-what, is proof that goofy thrills have turned heads for decades. But as the buildings grow larger and design schemes grow more elaborate, something is being ignored -- what it's like to actually walk around them."

Thanks to Design Architecture

Monday, November 12, 2001 in The San Francisco Chronicle

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