Side view of the Reynolds Buick and its sign

Place

Reynolds Buick

Designed by William Garwood, the dealership features concrete block façades dominated by the showroom, a protruding volume of floor-to-ceiling glass windows. An overhanging steel roof supported by exaggerated, almost Googie-style trusses shelters the whole building in style.

Place Details

Address

345 N. Citrus Ave. West Covina, CA 91791
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Architect

Decade

Property Type

Community

Founded in 1915, Reynolds Buick is a business with a very long history, and it has occupied the same headquarters on Citrus Avenue in West Covina for decades.

To help commemorate the company’s fiftieth anniversary in 1965, owner Pete Reynolds (son of founder Irv Reynolds) commissioned a new Modern-style showroom and office building on a new five-acre location.

Designed by William Garwood, the dealership features concrete block façades dominated by the showroom, a protruding volume of floor-to-ceiling glass windows. An overhanging steel roof supported by exaggerated, almost Googie-style trusses shelters the whole building in style.

A partnership between Reynolds, engine builder James Bell, and legendary racing driver Lennie “Pop” Kennedy led to Reynolds Buick becoming a major nexus of drag racing in Southern California; as the “Fastest Buick Dealer on Earth,” Reynolds Buick created a series of drag racing cars that set numerous records and entered the lore of drag racing during its heyday. The partnership was so successful that the Buick factory even supplied prototype parts to Reynolds for evaluation.

Today, Reynolds Buick is run by the third generation of the Reynolds family, which has embraced its exemplary Mid-Century Modern building as an integral part of its history and its success.