Who designed the original McDonald's Golden Arches building concept?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the original McDonald's Golden Arches building concept.

Meston was an architect who worked with the McDonald brothers on a restaurant design that would be highly visible to passing motorists. The design used two large yellow arches at opposite sides of the building, creating a distinctive roadside silhouette. The arches were architectural elements before they became the simplified corporate symbol recognized around the world.

The brothers' restaurant design also emphasized bright colors, efficient kitchen operations, and visibility from the road. Those features helped turn the building itself into part of the customer experience and made individual restaurants easier to identify.

The Golden Arches should not be confused with the later logo refinement. Jim Schindler is commonly credited with combining the arches into the familiar letter M in 1962, but Meston designed the earlier architectural concept. Ray Kroc, meanwhile, was the major franchising figure rather than the architect.