Does Dunkin' Donuts Fit Taco Bell's Curves?

Credit: Joshua Molina / Noozhawk photo

"Dunkin’ Donuts wants to move into this Taco Bell at 3771 State St. near La Cumbre Plaza, but its plan to remove the curved Taco Bell-style architecture is drawing opposition," writes Joshua Molina for Noozhawk.

Some members of the city’s Architectural Board of Review (ABR) weren’t enamored with the proposed changes. Thiep Cung said he likes the current building, which was designed by Santa Barbara architect Brian Cearnal in the 1990s. He would like some of that distinctive mission architecture to remain.

The company wants to get rid of the curved, bell-shaped architecture that adorns the front of the building, squaring it off.

It may surprise some on the East Coast, but until last year there have been no Dunkin Donuts in California. While the Canton, Mass.-based coffee and donut chain may be ubiquitous in Massachusetts, the first few have opened in California only last year in Santa Monica and Modesto, according to Jack Newsham of The Boston Globe.

Planetizen reported on a Dunkin Donuts opening in Long Beach last year that ironically involved a preservation story of its own.

Molina writes that the company plans to open 54 restaurants over the next few years.

And "California’s first-ever Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins drive-thru" opened on April 7 in Ramona in San Diego County, writes Monica Garske of NBC San Diego. Looking at the photo of that restaurant, one can see that straight lines are preferable to curves. The only curves appear to be the bike racks in front to the store - this is California, after all.

ABR member Cung ask the franchisee and his representative at the meeting, "can it live with a curved Dunkin’ Donuts?”