Ben Giovine and Liz Novak were looking for something different to do after the prom last week, so they headed to the beach to check out the flamboyant 1950s-era architecture.

Classic motels decked in teal and pink paint, diners streamlined in stainless steel and Wildwood's famous plastic palm trees and neon signs are all sights on a "Doo Wop" tour of the city.

Cool, man.

Wildwood has the largest collection of '50s architecture in the United States, according to the Doo Wop Preservation League, a nonprofit organization working to save the pop culture structures of a generation ago.

Fifty years ago, Wildwood saw unprecedented growth with motels adopting the bold, brash and boastful architecture of the time. Designs competed for the attention of passing motorists and took their style from fine automobiles, the space race and dreams of exotic tourist destinations.

"We were really on top at the time," said Hope Gaines, who narrates tours. "We had won the war. Everything looked good. There was just nothing bad about the '50s at the time."

Sightseers can take a 45-minute narrated bus ride through the city's main and side streets to check out more than 60 of the classic structures. The trip also includes admission to the newly opened Doo Wop Preservation League museum at Pacific and Pine avenues.

The museum is a work in progress, said society president Jack Morey. It includes everything from neon signs to a diner interior to toasters and lamps.

The architecture tour was launched in 1991 and suspended in 1993, said Michael Zuckerman, director of the Mid- Atlantic Center for the Arts, one of the tour sponsors. It was brought back in 1998.

"It has been a slow, growing process in attracting audiences," said Zuckerman.

Data are not kept on the type of people who take the tour, Zuckerman said, although many are architecture buffs.

Last year, 555 people took the trip, up from 493 in 1999, said Cindy Kluger, spokeswoman for the center.

Some of the highlights along the route are Big Ernie's Diner, at Garfield and Atlantic avenues, with its black-and- white checkerboard motif and stainless steel; the Jolly Roger Motel,along Atlantic Avenue, with its large pirate perched the roof; and the Rio Motel, Rio Grande Avenue, with a fake mule out front.

Giovine takes the blame for dragging Novak on the tour, but both said they enjoyed themselves.

"For awhile I've been into architecture," said Giovine, 17, of Toms River. "I don't want to call it retro. But it just has so much character."

On a trip to Cape May last month, the two stopped by the Starlux Motel to check out the design and pick up brochures, Giovine said. They later learned about the architecture tours and decided on a return visit.

"I really don't think (Wildwood) will have a problem keeping the architecture alone," said Novak, 17, also of Toms River. "I don't see how there can be any owners who would get rid of it."

The movement to preserve Wildwood architecture must also be profitable to motel and diner owners, Morey said.

There is evidence the movement is working. The preservation league works with the city planning board in an effort to make new architecture blend in with the old.

A new Subway shop at Rio Grande and Ocean avenues added a ' 50s-style sign. To keep the Doo Wop theme, the Imperial 500 motor lodge kept the '50s style when a fourth floor was added recently.