Which architect designed the original McDonald's restaurant buildings with the large roadside arches?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the original McDonald's restaurant buildings that featured large roadside arches.

Meston worked with McDonald's to develop the distinctive architecture associated with the chain's early restaurants. The yellow arches were physical structures placed on the buildings and were intended to make the restaurants highly visible to passing motorists.

The architectural arches later influenced the company's most famous logo, but Meston did not design the joined-arch logo itself. Jim Schindler created the 1962 logo version that transformed the two arches into a stylized M.

This distinction explains why McDonald's branding history includes both an architectural designer and a graphic designer. The Golden Arches began as a building feature before becoming a corporate symbol independent of the restaurant structures.