Southern Art Deco Buildings

This Coca-Cola bottling plant is a fabulous example of a curved corner, as well as porthole windows and an 'eyebrow.' The whole building is very nautical-looking.

http://www.you-are-here.com/los_angeles/coca_cola.jpg

Ocean Drive is an excellent example of Floridian Art Deco, featuring bright colors, vertical stripes, and eyebrows.

http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/photos/arts/sbdeco/photos/sbdeco01.jpg

This house is very Art Deco. It has bright colors, geometric shapes, a ziggurat, vertical lines, porthole windows, and eyebrows.

http://www.artdecopb.org/3811wallst.jpg

Examples of Art Deco Buildings

The metallic Empire State building exemplifies both horizontal lines and the ziggurat.

http://therealdeal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/empire-state-building_1_.gif

The Chrysler Building is a great example of a ziggurat. It also uses a lot of geometric shapes and horizontal lines. Also, it features an icon: the eagle head. The Crystler building is my favorite Art Deco building, and one of my all time favorite buildings. 

http://www.nybeyondsight.org/img/portspics/chrysler-building.jpg

The American Radiator Building is an excellent example of a ziggurat. It is also America's first Art Deco skyscraper.

By Gigi alt (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Rockefeller Center is a very Art Deco place. This building is a good example of a ziggurat, vertical lines, and metal.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/GE_Building_by_David_Shankbone.JPG/445px-GE_Building_by_David_Shankbone.JPG

The End of Art Deco

Like all things, the halcyon of Art Deco came to an end. When World War Two broke out, the highly adorned Art Deco designs that had captivated America for the past several years were considered overly opulent and unnecessary in a culture that was facing rationing and a global conflict. However, Art Deco lives on. Much of contemporary architecture features glass blocking and metal. And, of course, skyscrapers continue to be built to this day. However, Art Deco’s most important legacy is the culture it helped build. Even decades after the decline of Art Deco, buildings such as the Empire State Building are synonymous with the American urban experience, especially in areas like New York and Florida, where there were many Art Deco buildings. 

Characteristics of Art Deco

Here are some of the distinctive characteristics of Art Deco buildings and my explanation of why they occur. 

Art Deco had a very distinctive look. Unlike the organic nature of the Art Nouveau, it was an orderly, mathematical style. The rule of three featured prominently in many Art Deco style buildings. Geometric designs, often abstractions of both natural and manmade objects, were used to symbolize the uniformity of assembly line goods.

            Art Deco borrowed from other styles. The ziggurat (step pyramid) was incorporated from Ancient Egypt, where it was used to symbolize reaching for the sky and for the gods. This motif represented something similar when used in Art Deco: the act of reaching for greatness and the idea that in the modern age, anything is possible. My personal belief is that, while regular pyramids represent an impossible climb to the heavens, a ziggurat represents that, with perseverence, these heights can be reached. 

Icons were also used frequently in Art Deco, often as part of a bas relief. These icons were often traditional American symbols or elements of an ancient mythology. Many times, these icons were chosen very deliberately in order to show the function of the building, as well as to lend it a sense of grandeur.

Windows and other uses of glass are also very important in Art Deco architecture. Eyebrows, or ledges above a window, served the pragmatic function of keeping direct sunlight out of the interior, while etched glass served a more decorative purpose. Porthole windows, inspired by ships, one of the period’s prominent forms of transportation, exemplified the genre’s theme of technology. Glass blocks (bricks made out of treated glass) were often used to form a ziggurat.

Buildings done in this style were very colorful, especially in Miami. The bold, almost candy-shop hues were toned down when the Depression hit. In addition, vertical lines were a common motif in Art Deco buildings. Metal was also prominently featured in some Art Deco buildings; only in the Machine Age did alloys become inexpensive enough to be used widely as a building material. One of the most iconic Art Deco motifs was the rounded corner, also made possible by advanced technology and inspired by the new, aerodynamic vehicles.

Art Nouveau

Here are some beautiful Art Nouveau buildings to contrast to the Art Deco ones. 

Flickr user A.Currell used a Canon PowerShot A520 to take this picture on .April 8, 2007 

Truus, Bob & Jan of Holland took this picture on December 17, 2011 in Pl. de Brouckere, Bruxelles, Capital Region of Brussels, BE, with a Panasonic DMC-TZ7. It was posted to the Flickr account Truus, Bob & Jan too!

History of Art Deco

Although I'm focusing on American Art Deco, the movement actually started overseas. I love the fact that Art Deco started out so against the status quo and then became such an icon of its time. 

In 1922, The Chicago Tribune needed a new headquarters. To this end, they allowed architects from all around the world to submit designs for consideration. An American called Raymond Hood won the competition, but the community of architects was more intrigued by the Finnish Eliel Saarinen’s design, which incorporated elements of a new and unusual style. When Hood won another competition, he used some of the same ideas, fused with Gothic architecture, to create the America’s first Art Deco skyscraper. Three years after this, in 1925, the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels was held in Paris, marking the official beginning of Art Deco.  Although Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover banned official American involvement, believing American architecture was not innovative enough to include in the event, some Americans went anyway and brought ideas back to their compatriots, who adopted the style with a zeal fueled by a desire to prove their creativity to their government.  Soon, Art Deco structures such as William Van Alen’s Chrysler Building, William F. Lamb’s Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center (designed by Raymond Hood, along with Henry Hofmeister and H.W. Corbett), the buildings on Florida’s Ocean Drive, and Robert V. Derrah’s Coca-Cola bottling plant in Los Angeles sprang up across Art Deco’s adopted nation. A deeply cultural genre of architecture, Art Deco helped to inspire America as it was poised to enter the modern age.

Art Deco was a conscious reaction against Art Nouveau, a style commonly used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While Art Nouveau focused on the curves and other organic shapes of nature, Art Deco emphasized the clean, simple lines of the machine. Art Nouveau was a rejection of the uniformity and materialism of the Machine Age; Art Deco was a celebration of the future it brought. The latter, which was very different from most of the genres preceding it, was a perfect fit for an age that characterized itself by breaking tradition

Cultural Background of Art Deco

One of the things that drew me to Art Deco was how steeped in historic and cultural context it is. It is truly a product of it's times. The brilliant people of the 1920's put the most cherished elements of their culture into their buildings. Here's an exert from my paper in which I discuss this in more detail. 

Art Deco cannot be properly understood without knowledge of the time period that incubated it. The nineteen-twenties were a time of social change; a new worldview began in the cities and spread across the country, causing people to reconsider traditional attitudes, morals, and ways of life. Electric lights made it possible for factories to work day and night, churning out more and more uniform goods. Gone were the days of homespun fabric; everything was produced on the assembly line. Transportation became more accessible , and mass media (i.e. the radio) united people across regional, cultural, racial, and socioeconomic boundaries, encouraging them to live out the traditional American dream in a consumer society. More and more people poured into cities, lured by their excitement, glamour, and the hope of making a fortune. However, this new mechanized consumer culture did not thrill everyone. 

      Art Deco was a conscious reaction against Art Nouveau, a style commonly used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While Art Nouveau focused on the curves and other organic shapes of nature, Art Deco emphasized the clean, simple lines of the machine. Art Nouveau was a rejection of the uniformity and materialism of the Machine Age; Art Deco was a celebration of the future it brought. The latter, which was very different from most of the genres preceding it, was a perfect fit for an age that characterized itself by breaking tradition

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Art Deco

Hello!

First of all, a note about this blog. This is a capstone project for a class called Geometry, Art, and Architecture. Obviously, I focused on Art Deco. I'm going to be posting information about Art Deco and (to a lesser extent) the 1920s. I'm also going to be sharing some images of my favorite Art Deco buildings as well as an Art Deco building of my own design. 

I hope you enjoy it!