Pops - Arcadia, OK - Googie Architecture on Waymarking.com

It’s futuristic vision rising from the pastoral Arcadian valley itself, with its native Oklahoma red rock base and steel trusses like giant tree branches. The huge canopy cantilevers, unsupported, 100 feet to shelter vehicles and their occupants from sun, rain and snow. So big, it creates an “outdoor room,” it’s an unexpected sensation we bet you’ve never experienced -- with wildflowers and trees all around you. Ultramodern fuel pumps and other cutting-edge amenities distinguish POPS from any other gas station on earth. Giant Alert: This sculptural take on a soda bottle and straw soars 66 ft. into the sky. Like a rocketship from another realm, it’s THE must-see Route 66 landmark, standing next to the space station with which it arrived. Some text, from their website http://www.pops66.com/ UPDATE - ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Here's a blurb about the place by Associate Professor Andrew Wood, director of the San José State University Peer Mentor Program; "Further up the road, I finally found Pops. A number of times during this trip, I'd mentioned my plans to visit Pop's and I'd be reminded how that placed burned down. "Oh, I don't mean Pop Hicks," I'd explain. "I mean that new place near Oklahoma City." Generally '66ers, those who know the road well and personally, are intrigued by the potential for new business inspired by Pop's. But many aren't too happy about the place. It's not "real" 66; it's a version of the road designed for a brief detour from I-44. A fair critique, I suppose. But, come on! Pop's sells some 400 kinds of soda pop. 400! Honestly I have no idea how much they sell, but the glass façade of this striking googie gas station, with a cantilevered canopy that juts crazily toward the prairie is stacked with row upon row of bottles filled with colors often not seen in nature. It's hard not to smile at Pops. The place is a conflation of Route 66, most notably in plastic-framed photos of Mother Road icons ordered by all eight states through which the highway passes. You'll find all the standard Route 66 swag, virtually any kind of souvenir that can fit the eponymous highway shield, and plenty of Pops merchandise also: from rows of t-shirts to rub-on tattoos. Pops has quickly assumed its position as one of the central examples of Route 66 simulacra: illustrating more than most the role of self-referentiality as places meaningful only in their own contexts." http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/66in08/oklahoma/index2.html Andrew Wood recently traveled Route 66 (March 2008) for an academic paper on roadside simulacra. For more on Professor Wood check out this site http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluKHo65auk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfjl-bp4nnM

Type of Structure: Building Upswept Roof / Folded Plate Roof(s): yes Large Dome(s): no Large Sheet Glass Window(s): yes Boomerang and/or Arrow Shape(s): no Amoebae Shape(s): no Atomic Model(s): no Starburst(s): no Exposed Steel Beam(s): yes Flying Saucer/Rocket Shape(s): no If I knew, I'd be an architect: yes Physical Address: E 5th St Old Route 66 Arcadia, OK USA Web Address or URL: [Web Link]

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