As Americans became more mobile throughout the 1940s, both the public and architectural tradesmen had begged for better lodging design. Tired of the inconsistent quality of mom & pop motels, a broad call was made for a chain operator to step forward and revolutionize the industry. Having had years of practice honing its delivery of standard consistent quality in its Restaurants, Howard Johnson's seemed a natural to offer a chain of motels. However lessons the Company learned about creating standard products and services were not used in their first non-standard licensed Motor Lodges, for they were a hodgepodge of new and converted motels that would not measure up to Howard Johnson's later offerings. It would take a future seeing architect who had worked for HJ before to save the dream of better lodging.

Heeding the call for better design, Miami based architect, Rufus Nims, carefully studied the situation and created his prototype motel located in Fort Myers, Florida. Lessons learned from its plan were used to create the visionary design that became the standardized Howard Johnson Motor Lodge.