HOW TO DOO WOP: 

The official Wildwoods-by-the-sea handbook of design guidelines

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Guidelines for preservation, restoration, renovation and new construction in the Wildwoods. Published by the Doo Wop Preservation League. Click here to download.

The Ten Commandments for Creating a Great Doo-Wop Inspired Motel

(Based on studies conduncted by the University
of Pennsylvania, Yale University and Kent State University)

 

Take a simple 2-3 story bar or L-shaped motel building and add the following: 

1. A great name that evokes the 1950's i.e., "The Rock-N-Roll Motel", a distant exotic vacation spot, "The Caribbean Motel", or space, "The Astro Motel", etc. 

 

2. Create a wild and crazy high reader sign with shapes and typefaces that evoke the name, i.e., stars, planets, kidney shapes, and lots and lots of neon. 

 

3. Create a motel office, lounge, etc. in the shape of some wonderful wacky image, i.e., a spaceship, a beach ball, a sailboat, etc. with lots of color, glass and a decorative paint job. 

 

4. Create a pool area with kidney shaped pool surrounded by bright green Astroturf, and wild and crazy beach umbrellas and landscape with plastic palm trees. 

 

5. Create a colorful and distinctive profile for the balcony railings -- S-curves, C-Curves, the more curvy the better. 

 

6. Create an exterior color scheme made up of 1950's colors, i.e., pinks, baby blue, turquoise, sea greens... for rails, doors, trim and the drapes in the picture windows. 

 

7. Create an interior color scheme using a similar but more subtle palette and add "Jetson" decorations and furnishings from the 1950's. 

 

8. Create a wild and crazy neon roof sign in the style and typeface of the motel name and high reader sign. 

 

9. Create a decorative night lighting scheme, i.e., linear neon fascia or eave lights, floodlighting, and thematic, decorative fixtures in the pool and parking areas. 

 

10. And last but not least... put this all together in an idiosyncratic, original and crazy way that clashes, jumps and jives...!