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Burger Chef Building Design
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Archetect's drawing of the original Burger Chef building with outdoor ordering area.
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Burger Chef's original building design is known as the 'kite look' or 'open kite' shown in the sketch above, designed by Indianapolis architect Harry E. Cooler. The roadside sign was developed in conjunction with the Grate Sign Company of Joilet, Illinois. As the sketch shows, the early stores had the ordering area outdoors.
Early in the 1960's the ordering area was enclosed and indoor dining areas with stools and counters were added on either side of the lobby, which sometimes had booths across the front. The exterior walls of these stores were clad with white porcelin enamel panels with red diamonds, this was reproduced in backlit plexiglass along the roof line. The photo gallery shows a unit with this look and there are floor plans on this page.
The kite look gave the Burger Chef stores a sense of excitement, with the upward and outward thrust of the reproduction of the road sign across the front of the building. This shape was also reproduced in the roof sign, which extended from the ordering area. the shapes along with the vibrant colors used added to the excitement. The kite look also gave Burger Chef some identity with this unique design.
Around 1969, Burger Chef revised the open kite building design with the introduction of the Cosmos II style. The building front of the Cosmos II design retained some of the open kite look with the front window frame, now framed in brick, and roof sign. The rear half of this design had a four sided roof and a brick exterior. The roadside sign was also modified at this time, still an open kite design however with the neon and bulbs replaced with back light plexiglass and the Chef moved to the top center.
In the 1970's, roadside architecture became more subdued, using nature oriented colors instead of neon and bright colors. Burger Chef introduced a more formal looking building at this time shown in the photo below- with brick exteriors, tan mansard roofs, wood beams and a more muted color scheme. Roadside chains began to loose thier identity because everyone was using the same colors on thier buildings, and designs looked similiar.
Some stores that were originally open kite styled which were remoldeld with this new design had the open kite shape in the front window frame.
By 1980, Burger Chef's architecture was very formal, with white shutters and pillars. This building design looked almost like a house. There is a picture of this building style in the photo gallery.
This building design helped with Burger Chef's efforts to become more 'homey'. This is an example how a company's building style can affect its image.
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Building design used by Burger Chef during the 1970's.
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Courtesy: Kyle Brown
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Refrence:
Langdon, Phillip; "Orange Roofs, Golden Arches"; 1986, Knopf
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