Profile focuses on architect of Route 66 icons

Metropolis Magazine, a publication about architecture and design, has a well-written feature about acclaimed Oklahoma City architect Rand Elliott.

Elliott designed the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton, and the POPS gas station that’s being constructed off Route 66 in Arcadia, Okla. Elliott also is a native of Clinton and is well aware of the Mother Road’s history.

The article describes how Elliott designed the POPS station for Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon:

Often Elliott’s pitch comes in the form of a poetic description of the project, what he calls a “word painting,” that evokes the feeling of the space he intends to create. McClendon owns a commercial tree farm and a recreational site in Arcadia, just northeast of Oklahoma City, and with development increasing in the area, he asked the architect to design a gas station/convenience store to serve the community that wouldn’t look like every other one in America. Elliott imagined an homage to the soda fountain that would play on the nostalgic appeal of Route 66, with a glass facade displaying 12,000 pop bottles, an outdoor patio that looks into a redbud orchard, and a 66-foot pop bottle in front. His word painting for POPS went, in part: “Freedom…to travel the open road / to explore the countryside. …There is always a ‘gimmick’ on Route 66. Some true, some tall tales. There is always a ‘hook’ to get you to stop and look and buy something. …It’s a building of our time. …Imagine…a building emerging from the soil…growing out of the earth…connected to the place.”

There’s also the story about a pivotal moment in Elliott’s life at an Apache fire dance, and many other colorful stories. The article also has numerous photographs and drawings of his projects. The whole article is exemplary. Go read it.