The Rich’s Charco-Burgers building at 1390 W. Littleton Blvd. represents a time when a small Littleton-based business would commission a design for a unique building, inevitably working with local architects and builders. The unknown architect who designed this distinctive interpretation of Modernism did not embrace a less-is-more aesthetic. Instead, the designer created visual interest with a profusion of details, including the patterned pierced concrete block walls and the row of beams above the front façade.

The Rich’s Charco-Burgers building exemplifies the Googie style variant of the Expressionist style. (Googie style buildings incorporate futuristic references and have car-friendly features.) The Rich’s Charco-Burgers is the most flamboyant of all the Modernist buildings on Littleton Boulevard.

Today, the Taco House inhabits the building. One interesting aspect of the Taco House is that it bears the only sign that survived Littleton’s 1971 sign code. The restrictive design code destroyed a tremendous amount of what now would be historic fabric.

ShowDocument (littletongov.org)

Photographed Atom Stevens
Source: “Commercial Modernism in the Greater West Littleton Boulevard Corridor, 1950–1980” by Michael Paglia and Diane Wray Tomasso.