Smith Journal — January 2018

071 SMITH JOURNAL

neon dreams

ON THE EDGE OF TOWN AND THE OUTSKIRTS OF TIME LIES A FADED

ICON OF MID-CENTURY AUSTRALIA – THE MOTEL. A BLANK SPACE.

AN ART PIECE. A MODERN MARVEL. ENJOY YOUR STAY.

Writer Christopher Hollow Postcards Simon Reeves

LOOKING OVER MOTELS LIKE THE
SANDS, ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN
SIMON REEVES CAN’T HELP BUT
GET EXCITED.

Maybe it’s the bright Las Vegas-style lettering
on the front wall, or the illuminated sign
with its angled posts and geometric shapes.
It could also be the canopy made of concrete
shell arches. “It’s so striking,” Reeves says.
“I don’t have to squint my eyes to see beauty
in these types of buildings.”

The Sands could be straight out of a 1950s
Hollywood road movie, yet it sits right in the
heart of Adelaide, the city of churches.

It was the start of the atomic age when the
motel was built, and Australia’s designers
were just starting to embrace America’s
‘Googie’ architecture – a style built on wild
exaggeration, dramatic angles and futuristic
ideas. Googie came about with the rise of car
culture, and was applied to mid-20th-century
restaurants, bowling alleys, petrol stations and
motels. A bold break from the past, it drew
inspiration from science fiction, U.F.O.s and
rocket ships. Think Disney’s Tomorrowland,
Seattle’s Space Needle or the famous ‘Welcome
to Fabulous Las Vegas’ road sign.

It’s a style that Reeves holds close to his

heart. “I love the blatant influence of west

coast car culture and anything gratuitously

decorative,” he says. “Big neon signs, angled

glass walls and all that deliberately garish,

eye-catching style aping the classic American

roadside designs.”

A heritage consultant by trade, Reeves has

been travelling across the country in his

spare time, collecting photos, postcards and

other memorabilia that capture the golden

age of Australian motels. The way Reeves

sees it, there was a time when the motel was

the height of chic, a destination for family

travellers and honeymooners alike, and

offered innovations in accommodation that

left hotels for dead. If you lived in Australia

in the 1950s and ’60s, the motel offered a

portal to an exotic, faraway world. As a new

form, it gave architects the opportunity to

explore creative modernist and futurist ideas.

It was also a godsend, if you can believe it, for

restaurateurs keen to explore modern cuisine

and adventurous wine lists.

That time is clearly over. These days, passing

your average motel, it’s hard to imagine how

it was ever so. “I know the image people have

of motels,” Reeves says. “But, for me, it’s easy

to see past some overgrown grass or if the

place needs a lick of paint.” To Reeves and a

small cohort of like-minded fans, the Sands

is a local Adelaide icon, as was the Oakleigh

Motel in Melbourne; the Pink Poodle on the

Gold Coast; Mildura’s Kar-Rama Motor Inn;

and Gundagai’s TV Motel, so named because

it was shaped like an old-fashioned television

set. (You parked your car underneath its

‘legs’.) These aren’t just places people once

slept in while trying to get elsewhere; they’re

the history of modern Australia, told in

bricks and concrete.

..........................................

An American innovation, the first ‘motor

hotel’ appeared in 1925, in San Luis Obispo

on California’s Highway 1, roughly halfway

between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It was

called the Milestone Mo-Tel, and was set up as

a luxury establishment specifically for drivers.

It took another 30 years for the phenomenon to

take off in Australia. Which was the country’s

first? It’s hard to tell. Reeves says it’s a “weird,

morphic resonance thing where people came

up with the same idea at the same time.”

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