Which architect designed the McDonald’s restaurant building that inspired the Golden Arches?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the McDonald’s restaurant building that inspired the Golden Arches.

Meston developed the streamlined 1950s McDonald’s restaurant design with architect Charles Fishman. The building featured two tall yellow arches on opposite sides of the roofline, making the restaurant visible from a distance.

Those architectural elements later became the basis for McDonald’s corporate symbol. In 1962, designer Jim Schindler turned the separate arches into the familiar stylized “M.”

The building and the logo are therefore connected but not identical. Meston designed the physical restaurant architecture; Schindler created the later graphic identity. The surviving 1953 restaurant in Downey, California, is often discussed because it preserves this early design.