East Coast Girls are Hip

Abstract

Originating in California in the immediate postwar years, and informed by the cultural touch points of Hollywood and car culture, the city of Los Angeles and its rapidly sprawling suburbs were ideal locales to give rise to some of the first and now archetypal structures of midcentury pop architecture. These were associated with the year round sunshine and eternal optimism of the West Coast. However, as these roadside treasures began to pop up all over Southern California, a similar interest in exuberant, futurist architecture—this time in the form of hotels and motels—was also taking hold on the opposite shores of the United States. This photographic essay documents The Wildwoods, a group of small shore towns situated on a five-mile-long barrier island along the southern New Jersey coastline. Acknowledging their importance within architectural history in the United States, the essay offers an intimate experience with the vernacular architecture, seasonal economy, and the off-season vacancy of a tourist destination