Art Deco style
Introduction
The Art Deco Style, which originated in France just before World War I, had a major impact on American architecture and design in the 1920s and 1930s. The most famous examples were the New York skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center in New York. It combined modern aesthetics, fine craftsmanship and expensive materials, and became the symbol of luxury and modernity. While rarely used in residences, it was frequently used for office buildings, government buildings, train stations, movie theaters, restaurants, and department stores. It was also frequently used in furniture and in the design of automobiles, ocean liners, and everyday objects such as toasters and radio sets. In the late 1930s, during the Great Depression, it figured prominently in the architecture of immense public works projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration and the Public Works Administration, such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam. The style competed throughout the period with modernist architecture and came to an abrupt end in 1939 with the beginning of World War II. The style was rediscovered in the 1960s, and many of the original buildings have been restored and are now historical landmarks.
Architecture
Skyscraper
The Art Deco style was born in Paris, but in that city buildings that were taller than the Notre Dame Cathedral were not allowed (with the sole exception of the Eiffel Tower). As a result, the United States soon took the lead in tall building construction. The first skyscrapers were built in Chicago in the 1880s in the Beaux Arts and Neoclassical style. In the 1920s, New York architects used the new Art Deco style to build the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. The Empire State was the tallest building in the world for forty years.
The interior and exterior decoration of the skyscrapers was classic Art Deco, with geometric shapes and zigzag patterns. The Chrysler Building, by William van Alen (1928–30), updated the traditional gargoyles of Gothic cathedrals with sculptures at the corners of the building in the form of Chrysler radiator ornaments.[1].
Another important landmark of the style was the RCA Victor Building (now the General Electric Building), by John Walter Cross. It was covered from top to bottom with zig-zags and geometric patterns, and had a very ornamental crown with geometric spiers and stone lightning bolts. The exterior featured bas-relief sculptures by Leo Friedlander and Lee Lawrie, and a mosaic by Barry Faulkner that required more than a million pieces of enamel and glass.