Stanley Meston designed McDonald’s distinctive golden-arch restaurant buildings in the 1950s.
Architect Richard McDonald and business partner Maurice McDonald wanted their restaurants to be highly visible from the road. They commissioned Meston to create a building with large, eye-catching arches incorporated into its architecture. The arches were originally functional visual features rather than a standalone corporate logo.
The design helped make McDonald’s restaurants recognizable to passing motorists. The two arches were later combined into the familiar “M” symbol, but the architectural arches came first. This distinction is a common source of confusion: Stanley Meston designed the restaurant architecture, while Jim Schindler later developed the modern Golden Arches logo.
The arches became one of the most influential examples of roadside commercial design. Their bright yellow color and exaggerated scale made them visible from a considerable distance, supporting McDonald’s expansion during the early automobile-centered era of American fast food.