SANTA MONICA, CA — For nearly seven decades, a giant penguin has stood watch over one of Santa Monica's busiest intersections, welcoming motorists arriving at the end of Route 66. Now, the historic diner beneath it could be demolished.
Mel's Drive-In, the unmistakable 1959 restaurant at Lincoln and Olympic boulevards, faces demolition under a redevelopment proposal that would replace the beloved roadside landmark with an eight-story apartment building containing 138 homes. But the building's fate is far from settled.
The Santa Monica Conservancy and Los Angeles Conservancy have jointly nominated the former Penguin Coffee Shop for historic landmark designation, setting up a potential preservation battle over one of the city's last surviving examples of Googie architecture. The Santa Monica Landmarks Commission is scheduled to consider the nomination Dec. 14, according to the Santa Monica Conservancy.
Meanwhile, property owner ValueRock has submitted plans to the city to demolish the restaurant and its parking lot at 1670 Lincoln Boulevard and construct an 85-foot-tall mixed-use development. The proposal would dramatically transform a corner that has remained a recognizable part of Santa Monica's roadside landscape since the Eisenhower administration.
Long before Mel's occupied the building, the restaurant was known as the Penguin Coffee Shop, a 24-hour diner designed by the architectural firm Armet & Davis and opened in 1959. The architects were among Southern California's leading practitioners of Googie architecture, a futuristic, automobile-oriented style characterized by dramatic rooflines, expansive windows, oversized signs and bold geometric shapes.
The Penguin's distinctive roof and towering roadside sign were designed to attract passing motorists, particularly those arriving from the nearby Santa Monica Freeway. According to the Santa Monica Conservancy's historical account, the Penguin operated for approximately 30 years before the property became a dental clinic in 1991.
The building eventually returned to restaurant use when Mel's undertook an extensive restoration, preserving and recreating many of its original midcentury features. The restoration included revealing original stone cladding, recreating terrazzo flooring and period-style furnishings, and adapting the enormous penguin-shaped sign to incorporate the Mel's name.
The Santa Monica Conservancy recognized the work with a Historic Preservation Award in 2019. Today, the restaurant occupies a particularly symbolic location near the historic western terminus of Route 66, which celebrates its centennial this year. The conservancy describes the building as Santa Monica's only surviving example of the Coffee Shop Modern style, making its potential demolition especially significant to architectural preservation advocates.
The effort to protect the restaurant was already underway before the redevelopment proposal became public. The Santa Monica Conservancy and Los Angeles Conservancy submitted a joint application seeking to designate the former Penguin Coffee Shop as a Santa Monica landmark.
The Los Angeles Conservancy argues that the building retains a high degree of architectural integrity, including its original exterior features and much of its distinctive roadside signage. The organization considers the restaurant an important surviving example of the work of Armet & Davis, whose other notable Southern California coffee shop designs include Pann's in Westchester and several Bob's Big Boy locations.
The Santa Monica Conservancy has announced that the Landmarks Commission will hold a public hearing on the nomination Monday, Dec. 14, at 7 p.m. A landmark designation could provide significant protections against demolition, although the nomination itself does not establish that the building has been permanently protected.
The developer's preliminary application also acknowledges that the existing structure is more than 40 years old and that demolition would require a permit under Santa Monica's municipal code. The application outlines a 75-day review process during which a historic designation application may be filed.
With a landmark nomination already pending, the future of the restaurant could depend in part on the outcome of the city's preservation review.
According to the SB 330 preliminary application and architectural plans, filed under city case number 26ENT-0213, ValueRock proposes an eight-story mixed-use building with 138 apartments and approximately 5,667 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The apartments would include 20 studios, 90 one-bedroom units and 28 two-bedroom units.
Fourteen would be designated as affordable housing, including five for very low-income households, five for low-income households and four for moderate-income households. The remaining 124 apartments would be market-rate. The development would also feature a second-floor courtyard, rooftop deck and other residential amenities, along with 123 parking spaces spread across two underground levels and a ground-level parking area.
Plans prepared by Ottinger Architects show a contemporary building with white, beige and blue exterior finishes, balconies and landscaped outdoor spaces. The proposed development would rise 85 feet, exceeding the site's baseline 65-foot height limit.
To accommodate the additional height and housing, the developer is seeking incentives and waivers under California's density bonus provisions, which allow qualifying projects to exceed certain zoning standards in exchange for providing affordable housing. The plans calculate that the property's baseline zoning would accommodate 92 apartments, increasing to 138 through a 50 percent density bonus.
Additional requests include changes to setback requirements, reduced bicycle parking obligations and elimination of the usual requirement for three-bedroom apartments.
The development remains at the preliminary application stage, and the submitted documents do not establish when demolition or construction might begin. Nor do they establish whether Mel's intends to close permanently, relocate or continue operating while the proposal moves through the city's review process.
The restaurant remains listed at 1670 Lincoln Boulevard on the Mel's Drive-In website. The next significant development in the preservation effort is expected Dec. 14, when the Landmarks Commission considers whether the former Penguin Coffee Shop merits historic designation.
For preservation advocates, the stakes extend beyond a single restaurant. The building represents a disappearing chapter of Southern California's architectural history, when restaurants competed for motorists' attention with sweeping rooflines, glowing neon signs and designs inspired by the Space Age.
For the developer, the property represents an opportunity to add 138 homes to a city facing continued pressure to expand its housing supply. And for Santa Monica, the competing proposals raise a familiar question: how much of the city's past can be preserved as its streets are reshaped for the future?
For now, the penguin is still standing.
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