Retro Favorite Norm's Stands Alone As LA's Greatest Googie Icon

Welcome to Googie A Day, a Classics Week series that chronicles some of the most beautiful diners in Los Angeles that maintain the futuristic (at the time) ethos of Googie. Think the Theme Building at LAX, basically a mesh of the Jetson's and Pulp Fiction. Diners are LA's timeless restaurant style, one that continues to go strong despite an increasing emphasis toward either healthy or seasonal cooking. Up today, the iconic Norm's on La Cienega.

There's a reason that everyone was so up in arms about the possible demolition of Norm's Restaurant on La Cienega. The well-honed building is among Los Angeles' most recognizable, a stand-in for a time and place that helped to make Los Angeles a globally recognized destination.

The elongated diamond-shaped trusses, the sloping roof, the long open stretch of glass that looks out onto the boulevard. Today, these are Googie architecture staples, and standout images that themselves have become immortalized as art.

Thankfully, it doesn't look like Norm's is going away any time soon. Following the restaurant chain's first ownership swap in 65 years and worries of a lease dispute, things for now seem settled. That's good news for the 1957 building, but even better for the rest of Los Angeles.