The Gas Station in America (Creating the North American Landscape) - Tapa blanda

"Provides important information and insights for those who will explain more fully the American landscape of consumption." -- Thomas Hine, New York Times Book Review

"An exemplary exercise in scholarship... The authors' thorough account offers an interesting and wide-ranging history of the development of the forms of the gas station, the reason for their development, and the significance of these structures in the developed landscape." -- Bruce E. Seely, Design Book Review

"A valuable edition to landscape studies, and a fine book." -- Paul Shepheard, Times Higher Education Supplement

"Fascinating data and documentation... Gas stations have been around as long as automobiles, of course, but they've undergone almost as many transformations as the cars themselves... There are plenty of charts, tables, and maps, but also 150 nostalgic photographs of those old filling stations in all their individual glory." -- Parade Magazine

"Fans of Route 66 will be fascinated... Though this intriguing book is amply illustrated with photos and figures, it's a cultural and business study more than a picture book. What marketing strategies were behind the Bauhaus-inspired stations of the 1930s, the English-Cottage style stations of the 1940s? What's an octane rating, how did stations differ from one region to another? It's all here." -- Chicago Books in Review

"The whole history of the industry, the art of marketing and pumping down to today when, as we pump our own fuel, we must do so under a roof and frequently from the pump of a small 'supermarket,' is outlined in this sensible and informative book. Many a forgotten sight and smell is evoked. Lavishly illustrated." -- Ray Browne, Journal of Popular Culture

In the first volume of their celebrated "Gas, Food, Lodging" trilogy, John Jakle and Keith Sculle offer a comprehensive history of the American gas station, exploring every aspect of this roadside icon, including its evolving architectural identity; its place in both the American landscape and popular culture; the corporate decisions that determined its look and location; its metamorphosis into the mini-mart; and its role as the most visible manifestation of one of the world's largest industries. From the quaint curbside filling stations of the 1910s to the novelty designs of the 1920s (when stations were built to resemble English cottages, Greek temples, Dutch windmills, and Spanish missions) to the Bauhaus-inspired stations of the 1930s to today's nationwide chains of brightly lit look-alikes, The Gas Station in America is the definitive book on the subject. Richly illustrated with more than 150 images--postcards of gas stations, vintage ads, maps, and other memorabilia--this book bears witness to an economic and cultural phenomenon that continues to be a defining part of the American experience.