Along the Mother Road

Below, images of POPS 66 , a thoroughly modern gas station and soda fountain in Arcadia, Oklahoma. (via Architectural Record)

POPS 66 is prominently located along old US Route 66, and plays up that heritage with its agressive form:

This is the “mother road” of John Steinbeck’s Joads, and Woody Guthrie—two lanes, hundreds of small towns, and every imaginable sales gimmick to separate travelers from their money. Yet POPS isn’t meant to be kitschy or tongue-in-cheek, says architect Rand Elliott, who grew up on Route 66 and designed a museum to celebrate it in Clinton, Oklahoma. “It’s about the place and the landscape.”

It’s also about the romance of the road along with the innocent longing for fast cars, fast food, and a long cool drink that goes with it. POPS sells burgers, milk shakes, ice cream sundaes, and 700 kinds of soda, chosen as much for their bold colors and funky names (Brainwash, Dog Drool, Unknown Dread, and DOA) as for their taste. Its shelves are stocked with key rings, bottle openers, monogrammed golf balls, and other tacky souvenirs.

The high-octane combination of architecture and consumerism is paying off:

Soda is its most profitable item, followed by gas and food. In its fi rst year, POPS attracted more than 800,000 customers—remarkable for a tiny backwater town that’s miles from the nearest interstate. “It’s a phenomenon that I can’t explain,” says the architect. “It’s part architecture, part soda-pop memory, and part roadside attraction.”

Below, the display of wares becomes part of a fantastic, continually changing glazing system.

The gas station's programmable space extends outdoors--in back, a terrace with cafe seating is sheltered by the station's long sandstone side walls.That oversize canopy, standing out strongly against the horizon, is actually an unexpected civic gesture.

What Elliott has done is reimagine the gas station, a building type that is rarely designed well, without destroying its basic character or enduring romantic appeal. Instead of a scattering of utilitarian elements, POPS is three tightly integrated zones under one big roof.

The pump area, protected by the 110-foot steel cantilever, is mainly a work zone, with cars, motorcycles, and pickups zipping in and out. Yet it is also so spacious that families gather there on busy nights while waiting for a table. Occasionally, the gas pumps are even turned off for events such as car shows, live bands, and a farmer’s market—the gas station as community recreation center.

Inside, the restaurant and store form a more relaxed social scene, with a jukebox, a soda counter and booths, historic photos of Route 66, and 10,000 bottles of pop lining the walls and windows. At any time of day it is a blaze of color and refracted light, like the inside of a pinball machine without the bells and whistles.

Commerce and design merge at the facade. Looking out, through the soda bottles and past the gas pumps, one can consider Route 66's role as transportation route, historical relic, and cultural touchstone.

At night, the soda bottle in front lights up, at once both billboard and landmark.

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Comments

[Glaziers South West London]

I had a caramel shake when i visited and i have to say i have tasted nothing like it. Big thumbs up!