Who designed the distinctive 1950s McDonald's restaurant building in Downey, California?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the distinctive 1950s McDonald's restaurant building in Downey, California.

Meston, working with assistant Charles Fishman, created the restaurant design associated with McDonald's early postwar expansion. Its most famous features were the tall yellow arches rising above the building and the red-and-white exterior treatment.

The building was designed for the McDonald brothers' restaurant system and opened in 1953. Its bold roadside appearance made the restaurant easy to identify and helped establish a visual template that other McDonald's locations adopted.

This architectural history is sometimes confused with the later graphic-logo history. Meston designed the building and its arches; Jim Schindler later created the stylized Golden Arches logo introduced in 1962. The Downey building is preserved as the oldest surviving McDonald's restaurant site.