Mike's Famous Roadside Rest

Mike's Famous Roadside Rest

Mike's Famous Roadside Rest W. Barksdale Maynard

Mike's Famous Roadside Rest

Photo 2 of Mike's Famous Roadside Rest
1997–1998, Joseph Chickadel for Design Collaborative Inc. DE 9 and I-295

The award-winning, 40,000-square-foot retail complex strategically positioned along a busy highway at the approaches to the Delaware Memorial Bridge (NC3) combines a Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership, restaurant, and museum, built around an existing Howard Johnson motel registration booth. Market studies were carried out to determine what visitors would potentially like to see. Various themes were combined: old warehouses, Art Deco design, oversized signage, and Route 66 nostalgia. Extensive use was made of reclaimed materials: 100-year-old yellow pine flooring, bricks from abandoned buildings, a wooden steam shovel. Seats and doors were made from machine-part molds. The result is some of the most theatrical architecture in Delaware.

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