Martin Stern Jr., the architect credited with the Googie-style of retail design and much of the modern Las Vegas skyline, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 84.
Stern's designs for Ships coffee shops in Los Angeles in the 1950s, full of bright colors, angular shapes and neon signs, came to be called “Googie” architecture. Laughed at for their funkiness when they were built, the shops – featuring orange color schemes and looking like rocket ships about to blast off – were bemoaned by preservationists when they were demolished in the 1980s and 90s.
A more lasting contribution might have been Stern's designs for Las Vegas hotels, especially the Sahara in 1959, its convention center in 1967 and the MGM Grand (now Bally's) in 1973. Stern replaced the rambling Western, low-rise, lounge-and-motel feel of the Las Vegas strip with skyscrapers and towers, what one writer observed was “a bigger, bolder and self-confident look of a legitimate corporate business.”
One of Stern's conceits was to create towers in which the top floor was wider than those below to accommodate luxury suites with panoramic views.