Who created the original McDonald's Golden Arches restaurant design used in the 1950s?

Stanley Clark Meston created the original McDonald's Golden Arches restaurant design used in the 1950s.

Meston was an architect hired to develop a new building for Richard and Maurice McDonald's growing restaurant business. Working with assistant Charles Fish, he designed a structure with two large yellow arches on opposing sides. The arches were intended to attract motorists and make the restaurant easy to identify from the road.

The design was introduced in 1952 and became a defining part of McDonald's roadside architecture. It should not be confused with the later logo: Meston designed the building's arches, while Jim Schindler combined them into the recognizable “M” symbol in 1962.

This distinction explains why both names appear in accounts of McDonald's branding history. One represents the architectural origin; the other represents the logo transformation.