Art Deco and Streamline Moderne: From Skyscrapers to Industrial Design

Introductory Remarks: Le Corbusier and the Maharaja

• Le Corbusier and His Obsessions:     * The architect Le Corbusier had a profound obsession with cars, an interest shared by many of his contemporaries during the early twentieth century.     * There is a sentiment expressed that an appetite for Le Corbusier can sometimes be overwhelming, as he is a recurring and dominant figure in architectural discourse.

• The Maharaja’s Villa:     * A German architect designed a fabulous Bauhaus-style villa for a Maharaja.     * The Maharaja was a notable figure who lived an interesting life, including the tragic early death of his beautiful young wife.     * He resided with at least $3$ real elephants, which are captured in visual records of the estate and were a part of his life.

The Woolworth Building: Transitional Height and Technology

• Construction Details:     * Constructed from $1911$ to $1913$, the Woolworth Building stood as the tallest building in the world until $1930$.     * It reaches a height of almost $800\,ft$ and is anchored directly into the bedrock of New York City.     * Technologically and structurally, it was incredibly advanced for its time.

• Architectural Language:     * Despite its modern structural frame, the exterior references the Gothic Revival style.     * Gothic was considered the "language of height" prior to the twentieth century, utilizing soaring pinnacles, pointed arches, and flying buttresses.     * The exterior cladding consists of terracotta in several shades: rosy, sky blue, and a plain creamy white, used to offset architectural details.     * The lobby features Byzantine-style mosaics.

• The Interior Gargoyles (Humorous Figures):     * The lobby contains three specific gargoyles that serve as a humorous commentary on the building’s creation:         * Cass Gilbert (Architect): Depicted holding a model of his building (a simulacra).         * F. W. Woolworth (Patron): Depicted pinching pennies or counting nickels, referencing his reputation for "nickeling and diming" his team.         * Gunfald Aus (Engineer): Depicted taking measurements of a girder.

Art Deco: The Aesthetic of Height and Speed

• Definition and Scope:     * Art Deco is a global decorative style, rather than a "capital M" Modernist movement like the Bauhaus.     * It developed in the $1920s$ and spanned disciplines including architecture, product design, textiles, graphic design, fashion, film, photography, and interiors.     * Key Characteristics: Bold, bright color schemes; geometric motifs; and ornate ornamentation.

• Classical Roots in Architecture:     * Art Deco often relies on classical design rules: regular rhythms, bilateral symmetry, central massing/towers, and axial plans for harmony and clarity.

• Social and Cultural Context:     * It celebrates newfound wealth, industrial might, and cosmopolitanism.     * It embraces both the visual language of industrialization (machines) and expensive handcrafted techniques.

The Skyscraper Race: The Chrysler Building

• The Building and Its Patron:     * Designed by William Van Alen for Walter Chrysler, head of the Chrysler Corporation.     * The building served as a landmark advertisement for the car company, which at the time was considered a "high-tech" firm.

• The Competition for Height:     * The Chrysler Building was in a direct race for the title of "World's Tallest Building" against H. Craig Severance’s building at $40$ Wall Street.     * Severance believed he had won, as $40$ Wall Street was physically higher at one point during construction.     * The Secret Spire: Van Alen secretly constructed a spire inside the elevator shaft. Once the competition had finished their construction, he used cranes to lift the spire out, claiming the title.     * The title was short-lived, held for less than a year before being usurped by the Empire State Building.

• Art Deco Details of the Chrysler Building:     * Spire: Clad in stainless steel with a signature chevron motif and triangular openings.     * Building Height: $77$ stories located at Lexington Avenue and $42nd$ Street.     * Car-Inspired Ornamentation:         * Gargoyles stripped to bare geometries.         * Radiator cap cover projections (based on Chrysler car hood ornaments).         * Eagle projections on the corners.         * Friezes depicting hubcaps, tires, and the "speed lines" of running boards.

• Reception:     * While loved by the public and photographed by Margaret Bourke-White, the architectural establishment derided it as "kitschy" or "too commercial."     * William Van Alen never received another architectural commission and retired to teach sculpture at Long Island City College.

• Interiors:     * Features Moroccan marble walls and a painted ceiling mural.     * Lighting is recessed to maintain the planes of the walls.     * Elevator doors are inspired by Egyptian forms and classical motifs.

Defining and Critiquing the Term ‘Art Deco’

• Etymology: The term was not used in the $1920s$. It was coined in the $1960s$ for the exhibition Les Annës $25$ in Paris.

• Distinction: It was used to define French decorative arts of the $1920s$ and $1930s$ as a modernist movement distinct from the Bauhaus, Purism, De Stijl, or Constructivism.

• Sociopolitical Decline: In the late $1920s$, the style became associated with the hedonism of an out-of-touch elite. With the onset of the Great Depression, these associations of luxury and excess became problematic.

Regional Examples and Egyptomania

• Eastern Columbia Building (Los Angeles, $1930$):     * Clad in glossy architectural terracotta in turquoise, dark blue, and gold.     * Features a sunburst pattern at the entrance with zigzags, chevrons, and abstract floral motifs.     * Deeply recessed windows and vertical lines emphasize height.

• American Radiator Building:     * Mediates between Gothic Revival and Art Deco.     * Features a gold-accented crown, bronze plating, and black granite.

• Egyptomania and the King Tut Discovery ($1922$):     * The discovery of King Tut’s tomb sparked a global obsession with Egyptian motifs.     * The $1925$ Paris exhibition further globalized these aesthetics.     * Examples include:         * Carleton Cinema: Features a projecting cornice (characteristic of Egyptian temples) and columns shaped like bundles of papyrus reeds.         * Luxor Palais du Cin’ma (Paris, $1921$): Designed by Henri Zipcy, featuring papyrus motifs, images of the god Ra, and Pharaoh heads in Rondelle windows.         * Ruby Storage Warehouse: Designed by George S. Kingsley, who used Egyptian statues and scarab beetles to signify his worldly, cosmopolitan taste.

• Mayan Influence:     * Frank Lloyd Wright’s "textile block" houses in Los Angeles ($1920s$), such as the Hollyhock House, the Freeman, Millard, Storer, and Ennis houses.     * These drew from Mayan sources, specifically the roof combs/profiles of temples at Uxmal or Tikal.

Streamlining and the $1930s$

• Aesthetic Principles:     * Derived from aerodynamics used in aviation and automobiles.     * Characterized by smooth lines, rounded contours, and an emphasis on the horizontal to suggest speed and efficiency.     * Harold Van Doren: An industrial designer who championed the idea that aerodynamics were essential to modern twentieth-century products.

• Transport Examples:     * Chrysler Airflow: The first truly streamlined American automobile, designed based on aeronautics engineering by the head of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics.     * Douglas DC-$3$ ($1936$): Reinforced associations of speed and glamour.     * Pioneer Zephyr (Burlington Zephyr): High-tech locomotives exhibited at the $1933$ Chicago World’s Fair.     * Lincoln Zephyr: Featured a flowing teardrop shape with a V-shaped grille.     * Kalakala ($1935$): The world’s first aerodynamic Art Deco ferry, constructed in Kirkland, Washington.

• Product and Industrial Design:     * Streamlining was applied to objects that did not require speed (appliances) to symbolize modernity.     * Patriot Radio (Norman Bel Geddes): Made of Catalin, a thermoplastic popular in the $1930s$.     * Model $4$ Ton Meat Slicer (Theodore C. Briekert): Known as the "Streamliner," applying aerodynamic principles to cast aluminum and steel domestic tools.     * Sparton Bluebird Radio: Utilized concentric circles and pure geometric forms.

Streamline Moderne Architecture

• Key Differences from Art Deco:     * Where Art Deco is symmetrical and classicizing, Streamline Moderne is often asymmetrical, with open plans and compact, cubic massing.     * Features: Flat roofs, cement or smooth brick facades, "eyebrow" sunshades (flat projecting planes), porthole windows, and ship-railing balustrades.

• Leading Figures and Buildings:     * Eric Mendelsohn: Experimented with streamlining in the Rudolf Petersdorf Department Store (Breslau, Germany), using artificial light to create effects at night.     * Dela Warr Pavilion (Bexhill-on-Sea, UK): The UK’s first modernist public building, designed by Mendelsohn.     * Midland Hotel (Morecambe): Designed by Oliver Hill using "Snowcrete" (white Portland limestone cement). It features sweeping curves and a painting by Eric Gill on the ceiling.     * Frank Lloyd Wright’s SC Johnson Administration Building: Shows Mendelsohn’s influence through its smooth contours and horizontal bands.

Depression Era Infrastructure: The New Deal and the Hoover Dam

• Context: President FDR established the New Deal ($1933$), creating institutions like the PWA (Public Works Administration) and WPA (Works Projects Administration) to kickstart the economy through construction.

• The Hoover Dam ($1931$-$1936$):     * Designed by Gordon Kaufman and Henry John Kaiser.     * Utilizes pared-down geometries, glossy surfaces, and ship railings.     * Dedication Monument (Oskar Hansen):         * Features the "Winged Figures of the Republic," $30\,ft$ tall statues made of statuary bronze ($5$ tons each).         * Includes a Terrazzo floor (ground marble/granite in concrete) inlaid with a Celestial Map/Star Chart.         * The chart records the exact date of dedication ($09/30/1935$) based on the positions of the stars, intended to be readable even if the English language fades away in the distant future.

Corporate Identity and The Grey Restaurant

• Greyhound Overhaul ($1937$):     * Raymond Loewy designed the sleek greyhound mascot and proposed the Supercoach bus to match the look of locomotive trains.     * Bus terminals were designed in the same color schemes and materials (enamel and aluminum) to match the vehicles.

• Savannah Case Study: The Grey Restaurant:     * Originally a Greyhound terminal designed by George Dewey Brown.     * Exterior Features of Streamline Moderne:         * Horizontal band windows.         * Rounded corners.         * Glossy enamel panels and chrome/aluminum accents.         * A Pylon Tower over the entrance for advertisement.         * Asymmetrical front elevation designed to express movement to passersby on West Broad (now MLK).     * Interior Details:         * Curvaceous service windows and aluminum fixtures.         * Maintained history through collaborations with SCAD studios.         * The building reflects the transition of the terminal into a fine-dining space managed by chef Mashama Bailey.

Questions & Discussion

• Q: Is that red at the bottom [of the Carlton Cinema facade] added on after?

• A: Yes. The building was rebranded as Grace Point, and the new canopy/signage is out of character with the original Art Deco style. Many Art Deco buildings suffered neglect or unsympathetic changes in the mid-twentieth century when the style was out of fashion.

• Q: [Student comment regarding The Grey restaurant's interior history].

• A: The student noted that their lighting class worked on a project of redesigning lighting for The Grey, and they were shown the entire history of the building, including the upstairs sections. The restaurant does an excellent job of preserving its historical elements.