Beefed-up by design

COLUMBUS, Ohio — For better and for worse -- mostly worse -- McDonald's has had a profound effect on the American landscape. Its golden (actually yellow) arches, it's said, are a brand icon more recognized than the Christian cross. Its cookie-cutter buildings have turned vast stretches of suburbia into seas of asphalt. Its very name has become synonymous with garish design, which is why we call those bloated houses that cram far too much square footage onto tiny suburban lots "McMansions."

So the new, Starbucks-like look that McDonald's has rolled out in this classic Middle American test market may tickle more design palettes than a knock-your-eyes-out architectural whammy by Frank Gehry or Santiago Calatrava ever will.

We visit museums by those architectural stars, but we practically live in McDonald's. The company estimates that more than 25 million people a day eat at its U.S. outlets.

And now McDonald's is playing a controversial, high-stakes game of architectural catch-up, transforming its harsh, plastic-heavy interiors into soft, earth-toned places where you might linger with your laptop in an upholstered chair beneath a stylish pendant light. On the outside, McDonald's wants to ditch those screeching ketchup-red and mustard-yellow mansard roofs for a more muted look. By year's end, assorted aspects of the makeover -- mostly changes to interiors -- will be in place in about 6,000 of McDonald's 13,700 U.S. outlets. They are part of a global "re-imaging" program that includes other new designs the fast-food giant has built for its 31,000 outlets worldwide.

While Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's is touting the changes as the inevitable path to the 21st century, a visit to four of its showcase restaurants in Columbus and its suburbs reveals a decidedly mixed outcome, which can be summarized this way: McDonald's new look serves up less aesthetic heartburn, but it needs a strong shot of architectural spice.

On the upside, the chain's model for a new building, a light-and-airy arched structure based on the famous golden arches, is (stop the presses!) pretty appealing. The refurbished interiors, at least in the Columbus area, are far more visually sophisticated and comfortable than their predecessors from the age of disco, leisure suits and glitter balls.