As we wait for The LIttle Big Dig to start on El Camino it's worth delving into one of the useful things Caltrans did during the planning phase.  They had to commission an historic inventory report on the buildings along the historic thoroughfare–at least the ones that are left after the teardown trend of the last 20 -30 years.  All the way at the south end of town there are two distinctive buildings across from each other at the five-way, St. Catherine's intersection.  They are known as "Mogies" after architect Mogens Mogensen who did a number of projects on the Peninsula as described here:

Mogen Mogensen (1920-1997) Was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He graduated in 1942 in Architecture from the Technical School of Copenhagen. Between 1942 and 1946 he worked in architectural offices in Denmark and Sweden.  Mogensen had early success, winning awards for designs for a school in Malmo, Sweden in 1945, and a City Hall in Ulricehamn, Sweden a year later. He arrived in the U.S. in 1946 with the help of a great uncle and aunt who ran a dairy near San Luis Obispo. He quickly found a job with Wurster, Bernardi, Emmons in San Francisco, leaving them in 1947 for a two-year position as a designer with the David D. Bohannon Organization in San Mateo.

During this time, he became a licensed architect in California. From 1950 to 1952 he worked in several architectural offices in San Francisco and on the peninsula. In 1952 he returned as chief architect for David Bohannon. He opened his own office in 1956. His Bay Area practice consisted primarily of apartment buildings and condominiums although he also built private homes. Mogensen was also involved in master planning, office buildings, and commercial projects.

If you click through on the link you can see he designed the Adeline Apartments in Burlingame, the Ambassador Apartments in San Mateo, the Belmont Executive Center, and for the Bohannon Corp, the Hillsdale housing development and shopping center in San Mateo.

Here on the South end, the Mogie at 90 El Camino has been deemed historic in the report which is timely since the building has also gone up for sale for the first time that I can remember in the 34 years I have lived a block away.  Disen Cai has the listing and it pops up on-line for $2.8M.  We will revisit the other "Mogie" across the street–an angular apartment building–at another time. Here's the little Mogie gem: