SILVER SPRING, MD – Following the xenophobic backlash to an immigrant business owner lawfully renovating the Weller’s Dry Cleaning building, one of the few local examples of mid-20th century “Googie” architecture, Montgomery County’s Planning Board has unveiled a new mascot to raise awareness of this particular design style among area’s large immigrant population. Meet the Googie Monster.
“ME WANT GOOGIE!” yelled Googie Monster as he barged into an Ethiopian coffee shop on Fenton Street to pass out unsolicited literature on the need for historic preservation of Googie-style buildings. “Me no want change to Silver Spring. Me think Silver Spring better before. G is for Googie, that’s good enough for me!”
Hoping to achieve public education through entertainment, the green furred, googly-eyed mascot will make several appearances in Downtown Silver Spring while the Planning Board debates the status of the Weller’s building and neighbors rage that the building’s owner should have known that upgrading privately owned property is thoroughly un-American. With his voracious appetite for Googie architecture, Googie Monster will work to raise awareness of the importance of preserving random buildings from the 1960’s because change is bad and all things from the Baby Boomer era are good.
“We simply cannot have people coming into this country and desecrating this super important style of architecture that is so meaningful to my life,” said longtime resident Gerrie McAvoy, 74, who just recently learned about Googie architecture through a Google search. “How can you call yourself American if you don’t know anything about the significance of this futuristic style of architecture made popular by the California architect John Lautner from the late 1940’s to the early 1970’s?! Everyone knows that!”
If successful, the Planning Board plans to roll out other mascots to raise awareness of important county issues. Some early concepts include a cute, anti-bike lane advocate named Hellno, a red tape-loving frog named Permit, and a curmudgeon who doesn’t like new people on his quiet street, Elrich the Grouch.
