In 1952, when NBC threw open the doors to its brand-new broadcasting facility at 3000 West Alameda Avenue in Burbank, California, it wasn’t just unveiling another television studio. This was NBC Color City — the first complex in the nation designed from the ground up for the new frontier of color television.

Back then, RCA owned NBC, and RCA had a mission: sell America on color TVs. The Burbank facility became both a production hub and a living showroom for the dazzling hues of the peacock logo.

Architecturally, NBC Burbank reflected mid-century modern optimism. It wasn’t ornate — these were functional, low-rise concrete-and-steel buildings — but the design embodied a forward-looking, almost futuristic sleekness. Large soundstages anchored the complex, each fitted with advanced lighting grids and control rooms. Offices, rehearsal spaces, wardrobe areas, and RCA’s engineering labs clustered around them, forming a campus-like layout.

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The most memorable architectural feature wasn’t in the concrete or glass, but in the signage: giant neon letters spelling “NBC,” crowned with the network’s vibrant peacock, glowing like a beacon for drivers along Alameda Avenue. At night, the studio itself seemed alive.

Inside, the Burbank studios were a marvel of technical planning. They held four large production stages, all wired to accommodate the bulky new color cameras RCA was promoting. The control rooms bristled with switchers, monitors, and transmission equipment.

Here, NBC pioneered live multi-camera setups, sophisticated lighting rigs for color balance, and even early versions of what we’d now call “post-production suites.” For two decades, the technology at NBC Burbank set the gold standard for televised entertainment.

If the walls of NBC Burbank could talk, they would hum with laughter, applause, and theme music. Some of the most influential programs in television history were staged here:

• The Tonight Show — Johnny Carson brought the show west in 1972, and from that moment “Burbank” became shorthand for late-night television. Jay Leno carried on the tradition until 2009, then again from 2010–2014.

• Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In — the counterculture comedy hit of the late ’60s.

• Days of Our Lives — one of the longest-running soap operas in American history.

• Hollywood Squares, The Gong Show, Wheel of Fortune (early episodes), and countless specials, pilots, and award shows.

For decades, the studio was as much a cultural symbol as it was a workplace.

By the 2000s, the world of television had changed. NBC Universal began consolidating production at Universal City, where newer facilities offered more modern infrastructure. In 2014, NBC finally vacated Burbank, closing a chapter of broadcasting history that had lasted over 60 years.

The property is still active as The Burbank Studios. It has hosted shows like CONAN and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, but the old neon signs are gone, the peacock no longer presides over the façade, and much of the mid-century flair has been smoothed over into a generic studio exterior. The bones of the building remain, but the soulful branding that once made it “NBC Color City” has been stripped away.

What was once a beacon of color TV innovation now looks like just another production lot.

That loss is felt most keenly in the absence of the original signage and spirit. For viewers in the Carson era, “from beautiful downtown Burbank” wasn’t just a phrase — it was a promise of entertainment, glamour, and a little mischief.

Today, the site is still alive with cameras and audiences, but the era of peacock neon, mid-century modern optimism, and NBC’s showbiz swagger has slipped into history.

The Burbank studios taught America how to see in color. Ironically, in its muted modern form, the building itself has faded to gray.

 

OLYMPIA PRIMARY SCHOOL, though it is recognizably of a definite type, responds in several ways to the special needs of the community it serves. The architect had previously designed several rather orthodox schools for the district; out of that experience and a re-evaluation of the school building problems of Daly City's increasingly dense population came some fresh decisions, for which state approval had to be obtained.

Basically Olympia is a home school unit, kindergarten through third grade, a summer recreation facility and a center of community activity. In addition, the problems of maintenance, vandalism and exposure to winds and fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean became important design factors. The cost of maintaining wood and stucco in the school district, the observation that classroom lights burned almost continuously despite careful design attention to daylighting, the need for a lively, joyous building in which the community could take pride- these were some more factors. Hence the building has a concrete roof deck erected by the lift-slab method; its exterior walls are of textured, reinforced concrete blocks painted a pleasing color; it turns inward to the surprise and delight of its central court, shutting out the mono- tone subdivisions that surround the site; its classrooms have entire luminous ceilings; it sparkles throughout with light and life and color that are a far cry from both the usual drab scientific interpretation of lighting requirements and the dead level of speculative housing.

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source: Architectural Record | October 1956

 "We built over 1,500 three- and four-bedroom, two-bath Forever Houses. Each house featured concrete block walls and concrete driveways and terraces.

"Concrete block walls provide for permanency. They do not deteriorate like other less durable materials. An occasional paint job makes any con- crete masonry house look like new in a hurry.

"Because of the high satisfaction and fine reception by the families now enjoying the beauty, safety, economy and insulating qualities of their Forever Houses, we are planning to build more of these budget-priced homes. Concrete masonry walls will be the top feature."

J. DOUGLAS PARDEE, Pardee-Phillips Construction Co., Los Angeles, Calif.

Wall construction is of concrete masonry laid in running bond and finished with Portland cement paint. 

Forever Houses in South Whittier, Calif. The Forever House, designed and constructed by Pardee-Phillips Construction Co., of Los Angeles, Calif., and Las Vegas, Nev., has won a number of national awards.

 The original Quad was built in 1953 and expanded in 1965 with the addition of a May Company California department store. Arcadia-based Hinshaw's and Pasadena-based Nash's were other major tenants. It was destroyed by the 1987 earthquake. 

 

 

This spectacular californian-googie car was, once stood at 3245 W. Imperial Hwy, one block west of Crenshaw, Inglewood. When it opened, in the 1960's, it offered Caranuba Wax Solution.