Following the post on UPA’s logo, Ward Jenkins asks if I have any photos of the UPA studio that was designed by John Lautner in 1949. Within this building, many classics of 1950s animation were created including GERALD MCBOING BOING, THE TELL-TALE HEART, UNICORN IN THE GARDEN, ROOTY TOOT TOOT and the Mr. Magoo shorts. Sadly the building was torn down many years ago, but below are some 1950s-era photos of the studio. The more famous Los Angeles landmark that Lautner completed in 1949 was Googie’s Restaurant. In the early-1950s, critic Douglas Haskell dubbed an entire school of commercial archicture after Lautner’s building, and thus the Googie style was born. Ironically, Lautner’s design of the UPA animation studio, the place where one might most expect to find the whimsical and cartoonish elements of the Googie style, was free of any such excesses. The UPA studio instead had a sort of industrial modern esthetic and incorporated vaulted roofs made of corrugated metal, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and exposed steel beams inside of the building.
Thanks for posting this, Amid. I always enjoy checking out swank architecture from the past. I hate that this building is no more, though. It just kills me.
Comment by Ward — November 16, 2005 @ 3:01 pm
This is the reason the internet exists. Thanks to hosts like you, I don’t have to leave my chair to do any of this research. This period is my love, and it just makes my day coming here. Thank you.
Comment by Michael Sporn — November 17, 2005 @ 5:38 am
I love the pictures of the old UPA studios. I’m not exactly an expert on architectural designs, but being built in the late 40’s, it looked rather advanced for its time. Plus, is UPA still producing cartoons? I always loved the Dick Tracy and Mr. Magoo cartoons.
Comment by Jim Wille — September 3, 2007 @ 10:05 am