Meanwhile, after very little checking, I realized that Knute Berger on Crosscut had the Ballard Denny’s rising national news star in late February. Knute notes:
Newsweek.com has weighed in on the controversy over the Ballard Manning’s/Denny’s diner that recently was designated a landmark by Seattle’s Landmarks Preservation Board. The story, “Is Googie Good?” by Sarah Kliff, gives a rundown on the affair, which has gotten attention on blogs and in major newspapers (the Los Angeles Times), particularly because of the eyebrow-raising notion that a boarded up “Denny’s” could be worth preserving.It’s not unique, however. There’s a growing trend to honor mid-20th century architecture that was designed for regular folks. A couple of examples: The oldest McDonald’s restaurant in the county (1953) was found to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 after being determined to be of “exceptional significance.” A 1959 Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank, California was made a California Point of Historic Interest in the 1990s. And Alan Hess, architecture critic and author of the book Googie Redux: Ultra Modern Roadside Architecture says that there are several, yes, Denny’s diners that are being researched as possibly historically “significant” in the Los Angeles area.Meanwhile, Newsweek reports that landmark’s board chair Stephen Lee says the Ballard diner controversy has generated “‘the most excitement’ he has seen during his six years chairing the board.”
I’d just have liked to have seen my sister’s face, and heard the comments she made to her husband, when she saw the Ballard Denny’s on TV. She thinks we’re a litte strange out here in the Pacific Northwest… Nothing strange about cutting off a 1.5 lane county road and driving a five-mile shortcut on a cornfield dirt path though! Talk about zoning…
