It Caught My Eye: a Mid-Century Modern Gas Station

“It Caught My Eye” is a series of posts about chance encounters with interesting architecture or design, published at irregular intervals. Often I accidentally stumble across something that catches my eye, while at other times I drive past an interesting building repeatedly and each time think “hmmm...”

Such is the case with this defunct modernist gas station at 2366 Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Built in 1957, four design elements I find noteworthy and lovely:

• the dry-stacked stone walls – on a gas station!
• the inward-inclined windows to reduce solar gain and glare, very rare these days,
• the interior downlight cans (you have to look closely in the pic), running parallel to the windows, and
• the angled canopy, complete with a cutout for the brand post.

Lovely – but likely not for long: the station has been closed for at least two years, and being located on very valuable land, it is only a question of time when a Phase 2 environmental audit will be completed and the site usage will be changed. Sad for the structure, but a service station in this location is probably not the highest and best use of the site.

If you happen to be near East Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale just west of the Intracoastal: check it out!