Who designed the distinctive Golden Arches for McDonald’s first major restaurant building?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the distinctive Golden Arches for McDonald’s first major restaurant building.

Meston was an architect based in California who worked with the McDonald brothers on the design of their 1950s restaurant in Downey, California. The building used two large yellow arches on opposite sides of the structure, making the restaurant visible from passing traffic.

The arches were initially architectural features rather than the standalone corporate emblem familiar today. A prominent sign combined the two arches into an “M” shape when viewed from an angle, helping the design evolve from restaurant architecture into a powerful brand symbol.

Jim Schindler later developed the interlocking-arches logo used by McDonald’s, so the two names are often mixed up. Ray Kroc was the businessman who expanded McDonald’s nationally and internationally, not the architect responsible for the original building design. The Downey restaurant is preserved as the oldest surviving McDonald’s location.