Burger King proposes new brand store in Sherman Oaks on Van Nuys Blvd

Architect of Record Armet Davis Newlove, the Firm Behind LA's Googie Coffee-Shop Era, Brings Burger King's National Redesign to the San Fernando Valley

A Burger King on Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks is headed for a top-to-bottom brand renovation, with plans filed to the City of Los Angeles Planning Commission on September 8. The application, titled 'Burger King Image Renovation,' covers Store #2056 at 5109 Van Nuys Blvd, a 23,585-square-foot lot on the busy commercial corridor, and lays out an extensive exterior and interior overhaul that brings the location in line with Burger King's national 'Sizzle' prototype rollout.

Filed under case number ZA-1998-872-PAD-PA1, the plans call for the removal of the restaurant's existing mansard roofline across the drive-thru, parking lot, and rear elevations, replaced with new brick veneer at the main entrance and wainscot, new aluminum composite metal canopies, and a new 19-inch illuminated wordmark sign. A rebuilt trellis structure will anchor the front and side of the building, and the drive-thru will get a new California-approved window along with a matching canopy. The elevation drawings also show a new brick 'Home of the Whopper' wall treatment, a hallmark of Burger King's contemporary branding push, along with new storefront doors on both sides of the building.

Inside, the remodel is just as thorough. The floor plan calls for a new front counter, a new kiosk counter for self-order stations, and a relocated drink station, alongside a full replacement of the kitchen's ceiling grid and tile. The dining room is being reconfigured to seat 73 guests, including four ADA-compliant seats, and both restrooms are being brought up to current accessibility standards. The materials and finish schedule specifies Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore paint lines, Evolution Brick veneer at the entrance and wainscot walls, and Nichiha fiber cement cladding panels, all standard components of Burger King's current national design package.

Architect of record on the filing is Armet Davis Newlove Architects, the Santa Monica firm with deep roots in Los Angeles design history. Originally founded in 1947 as Armét & Davis by Louis Armét and Eldon Davis, the practice became synonymous with Googie architecture, the bold, futuristic coffee-shop aesthetic that defined mid-century car culture across Southern California. Victor Newlove joined the firm in 1963 and became a partner in 1972, when it took its current name. The firm has since built a long track record designing and adapting restaurant prototypes for national quick-service brands, a lineage that makes it a natural fit for translating Burger King's corporate-led redesign into a site-specific Sherman Oaks build.

That redesign, known internally as 'Sizzle,' is part of Burger King's broader 'Reclaim the Flame' strategy, which the company has been rolling out since late 2023. National reporting on the initiative describes full conversions running between $550,000 and $700,000 per store, with the company targeting somewhere between 85 and 90 percent of its U.S. locations remodeled by 2028. Trade coverage has pointed to features like open-kitchen sightlines toward the flame broiler, large-format digital ordering kiosks, and dual-lane drive-thrus that separate traditional ordering from mobile and delivery pickup, and Burger King has reported meaningful sales lifts at stores that have already converted.

The Sherman Oaks filing does not include a construction start date or an estimated completion timeline, and no public statement from Burger King or Armet Davis Newlove has been issued specific to this location. The Van Nuys Boulevard corridor has seen a steady run of commercial refreshes in recent years, and this remodel adds a recognizable national chain to that pattern, arriving with an architectural pedigree tied directly to the look and feel of Los Angeles roadside design.