O.C. Bowling Alley's Days Roll to an End

Forget about "bowling alone" -- a phrase that reflects political scientist Robert D. Putnam's observation that you can measure America's weakening sense of community by the decline in bowling leagues.

In Costa Mesa, you can't bowl at all.

The city's last bowling alley -- the landmark Kona Lanes, sporting a neon Tiki marquee outside and 40 wood-floor alleys inside -- quietly closed after 45 years of strikes, spares and splits.

Plans are uncertain for the site, which is owned by the Segerstrom family. Costa Mesa officials recently rejected a proposed Kohl's department store for the corner lot and no fresh proposal has surfaced.

Regardless, the building at Harbor Boulevard and Adams Street will probably be razed, along with an adjacent -- and already closed -- movie theater and ice-skating rink.

Beyond the sadness of local bowlers, preservationists are lamenting the loss of another example of Southern California's postwar Googie architecture, a mix of Space Age optimism, flamboyant neon lights and ostentatious rooflines meant to attract motorists like moths.

"With each one that goes down, a part of that history is gone with it," said Adriene Biondo, chair of the Commercial Council committee of the Los Angeles Conservancy, which seeks to preserve Southern California architecture. "When you look at the '60s, everywhere you drove looked different. Now everything becomes an average-looking landscape. It's really a shame. I hate to see that go."

Known for Excesses

In some ways, Googie is the class clown of architecture, adopting cartoonish excesses of windows and overhangs to catch the eye. The name comes from the former Googie coffee shop, which opened in a Space Age building in 1949 at the corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights boulevards in Los Angeles.

Some examples, like Kona Lanes, also embrace '60s Polynesian Tiki influences, and look like a cross between "The Jetsons" and "The Flintstones," with fieldstone walls, large angled eaves and an inherent sense of campiness.

"It's fun and optimistic even though it's very excessive-looking," Biondo said.

Jack Mann, whose family has owned Kona Lanes since 1980, said Segerstrom officials informed them last year that they wanted to renovate the property, and gave the Manns first dibs on refurbishing the business. But Mann said it would cost $10 million to $20 million to make the lanes competitive, more money than the family was comfortable investing in rented space.