Who designed the original 1950s McDonald's restaurant buildings with their tall yellow arches?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the original 1950s McDonald's restaurant buildings with their tall yellow arches.

Meston was an architect in Southern California who developed the distinctive Speedee Service System restaurant design for Richard and Maurice McDonald. The buildings used red-and-white tile, a streamlined roofline and two large yellow arches rising above the structure. Their height made the restaurants visible to passing motorists.

The arches were architectural elements before they became a corporate logo. In 1962, designer Jim Schindler converted the visual idea into the single Golden Arches mark used in branding. This distinction explains why Meston and Schindler are both connected with the arches but performed different design roles.

The original buildings also supported the brothers' operating model. The compact kitchen, walk-up service and limited menu enabled fast production, while the highly visible exterior advertised the restaurant from the road. Later McDonald's restaurants changed style, but the arches' visual legacy remained.