As a consequence of motorization, roadsides sprang up along the edges of California's roads. Buildings that go to great lengths to attract the attention of Advertising to passing potential customers were: gas stations shaped like giant airplanes, photo shops resembling enormous cameras, motels seemingly sprung from a bizarre parallel universe ruled by David Lynch, Lewis Carroll, and a playing child, and snack bars and restaurants that inflated everything that could be quickly eaten and drunk on the go to ludicrous proportions: monstrous donuts and hot dogs, gigantic coffee cups, kettles, and six-packs, monster pigs and giant fish. Add to that countless oversized dogs, giant owls, mega toads, and naturally large dinosaurs whose fully air-conditioned abdominal cavities invited passersby to consume ice cream, donuts, hamburgers, and pancakes with maple syrup. A freak show of architectural proliferation, which may be a nightmare for any building authority director, but for all those unfortunate souls who had to grow up in the uniform American suburbia or the German gabled-roof horror of terraced and housing estates, a liberating escape from the terror of conformity, a liberating party to the left and right of the street.

This expanded new edition of Jim Heimann 's classic work on pop, camp, fun, and trash architecture along the streets of California breathes the gasoline- and deep-fried-grease-laden, and sometimes even cotton-candy-like, spirit of freedom—loud, colorful, naive, and bizarre. Expanded with a wealth of new images of surreal and hallucinatory roadside attractions, this volume is a treasure trove for all fans of eccentric novelty architecture and offers a deep glimpse into the psyche of a car-obsessed society.