Randy's Donuts | Los Angeles Conservancy
Photo by Michael Locke.

Randy's Donuts

Randy’s Donuts is an unquestionable icon of 1950s Los Angeles for obvious reasons: it is a typical mid-century drive-up restaurant with a giant donut on its roof.

Not just a giant donut—Randy’s has THE giant donut, the most famous donut in America and maybe even the world.

It has appeared in innumerable television shows, music videos, and films.

The donut shop was reportedly designed by Henry J. Goodwin as the second of ten locations for Russell C. Wendell’s now-defunct Big Donut Drive-In chain and was completed in 1953. Several others still survive, but Randy’s in Inglewood is the best known.

The building itself is a fairly unremarkable if admirably intact Mid-Century Modern drive-up food stand, and it may not technically count as Programmatic architecture (in which a building looks like the item it hawks). But the donut on its roof is just so large, so uncompromising, so demanding of our attention that we’ll look the other way and consider Randy’s a Programmatic design.

Structural engineer Richard Bradshaw, who worked on the Theme Building at LAX, is said to have designed this and other giant donuts out of rolled steel bars covered with gunite. The restaurant has seen multiple owners since Wendell, including the one who named it Randy’s in the mid-1970s, but it has been owned by donut enthusiasts Ron and Larry Weintraub since 1978.

Randy’s Donuts is one of Los Angeles’ most iconic landmarks and represents the postwar optimism and whimsy of the city in a way few other places can.

McDonald's Hamburgers
Photo from Conservancy archives

McDonald's Hamburgers

A Googie-style building designed to reveal the restaurant's innovative food preparation techniques, it is the oldest surviving McDonald's restaurant still in operation.
Killingsworth, Brady & Smith Office Building photo
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Killingsworth, Brady & Smith Office Building

His firm having already made a significant mark on the Modern architecture of Southern California, Edward Killingsworth's most lasting impact may have been the office building he designed for his new firm on Long Beach Boulevard.
Clifton's
Photo by Jessica Hodgdon/L.A. Conservancy

Clifton's

This beloved downtown institution is restored and reimagined for new generations.