Who designed the original McDonald’s restaurant with the yellow arches in San Bernardino?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the original McDonald’s restaurant with the yellow arches in San Bernardino. His architectural work helped create the visual form that later became a global logo.

Meston worked with artist Charles Fish on the restaurant design in the 1950s. The building used two large yellow arches at opposite sides of the structure, making the restaurant visible from the road and giving it a distinctive silhouette.

The arches later evolved from architecture into corporate identity. McDonald’s combined the two curves into the familiar M-shaped emblem, separating the symbol from the original building while preserving its visual memory. Ray Kroc is often credited with expanding McDonald’s nationally, and Jim Schindler is associated with later logo development, but Meston designed the original arched restaurant.