science

Wayne McAllister

Wayne McAllister is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wayne McAllister rather than just read about it. In short: Wayne Douglas McAllister (November 17, 1907 – March 22, 2000) was a Los Angeles-based architect who was a leader in the Googie style of architecture that embraced the automobile and the Space Age. Inspired by tail fins and gleaming chrome, he elevated the drive-in restaurant and the theme hotel to futuristic works of art.

Key takeaways

Wayne McAllister belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wayne McAllister to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wayne McAllister from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wayne Douglas McAllister (November 17, 1907 – March 22, 2000) was a Los Angeles-based architect who was a leader in the Googie style of architecture that embraced the automobile and the Space Age. Inspired by tail fins and gleaming chrome, he elevated the drive-in restaurant and the theme hotel to futuristic works of art. His 1941 El Rancho Vegas was the very first resort hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, and his iconic 1949 Bob's Big Boy restaurant in Burbank, California is a California historical landmark. He created iconic circular drive-in restaurants in Southern California, including Simon's, Herbert's, and Robert's in the 1930s.

Biography McAllister's first major commission was the Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel in 1928, a resort casino and race track that presaged his work in Las Vegas. He designed restaurants and nightclubs, including Pig 'n Whistle, Mike Lyman's, Van De Kamp's, Lawry's, Bob's Big Boy, Cinegrill in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and restaurants and nightclubs at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel including the Biltmore Bowl, home to many Academy Awards ceremonies. After the El Rancho Vegas, McAllister created the original plans for other hotels in Las Vegas, including El Cortez, Desert Inn, Sands Hotel, and the Fremont Hotel and Casino. His partner William Wagner created Binion's Horseshoe in 1961. His obituary in The New York Times reported that he moved to Washington, D.C. to work for Marriott in 1956, becoming a Vice President and supervising the first hotels built by Marriott. He returned to Los Angeles in 1962 where he became an entrepreneur, including the early development of coin-operated photocopying vending machines. The Los Angeles Conservancy held an exhibition on his career at the Pacific Design Center in 1998. McAllister died of a head injury in Arcadia, California at the age of 92.

Selected projects Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel, Tijuana, Mexico (1928) Herbert's Drive In, Los Angeles, California (early 1930s) El Rancho Vegas Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada (1941) Bob's Big Boy, Burbank, California (1949) Desert Inn, Las Vegas, Nevada (1950) Sands Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada (1952) Fremont Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada (1956)

Notes

References Hess, Alan (2004). Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture (2nd ed.). Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0811842723. Nichols, Chris (2007). The Leisure Architecture of Wayne McAllister. Gibbs Smith. ISBN 978-1586856991.

External links

Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee - ModCom Architect McAllister Worked Hard to Create Leisure - NPR segment

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wayne McAllister

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wayne McAllister claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wayne McAllister before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wayne McAllister ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wayne McAllister

In research: Wayne McAllister appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wayne McAllister in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wayne McAllister is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1907 births, 2000 deaths, 20th-century American architects, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wayne McAllister outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wayne McAllister in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wayne McAllister means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wayne McAllister out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wayne McAllister in simple terms?

Why does Wayne McAllister matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wayne McAllister?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wayne McAllister.