Why did this style only last a decade or two and why is it so forgettable? Is it because its one of the few prominent styles that weren't part of a philosophical, religious or political movement? Or maybe WW2 had something to do with it? I know it's ornamental for its own sake but I like it. I was thinking - what if we had dense neighborhoods in Ohio cities that were similar to something like Miami Beach? I wonder why you don't see many architects experimenting with it, especially in the Midwest. I want to see art deco infill lol. I know people have regional bias - traditional styles are more comforting but I remember in Mt. Adams (Cincinnati) the art deco infill always caught my attention. I do wish there were more of it but maybe it's because I'm not used to seeing it. What do you guys think? Is it under rated? Over rated? Already incorporated to some extent in later modern buildings so who cares?

 

Also if you have any pictures of nice art deco urbanity in unsuspected places I'd like to see it.  :-)

WW2 + Depression = Cheap Building materials

You will see art deco infill going up queen city ave., heading west. Many apartment buildings, either 4 or 8 units I would assume. You'll know them when you see them. If I'm not mistaken there are some on Glenway too.

Art Deco is probably my favorite style. Done properly, I think it's timeless.

 

Indianapolis:

 

What really defines the style? I don't have any training in architecture, so I'm a little uncertain about styles, but it seems to me that the World War Memorial blends neoclassical, perhaps, and Art Deco. It was built in 1928 to honor those who served in World War I. Inside and out, the memorial is formal and dignified, but absolutely glorious.

 

 

Pro Patria (Henry Hering, 1929) is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful examples of heroic sculpture anywhere:

 

 

 

 

 

Cincinnati - Carew Tower:

 

 

Well David, there are many versions of "deco".  Most of miami is ship liner art deco.  And when people think of Art Deco that is what they think of.

 

In Cleveland there are not of building designed as Art Deco but a lot of interiors that are Art Deco, such as the original Post office.

 

This is a small sample of building in Cleveland considered Art Deco or that have Art Deco features:

• The Police Station on Payne
  
• The Lorain-Carneige Bridge
  
• The Grey Hound Bus Station.
  
• Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine Building
  
• Severance Hall (parts)
  
• The Commodore Theatre in Collinwood
  
• Downtown Cleveland Woolworths (now know as the House of Blues)
  
• The AT&T Building Prospect
  
• Fenn Tower/College
  

 

The Great Lakes exposition was one of the largest Art Deco events ever.

 

Cowan Pottery in I think Lakewood was at one time one of the largest producers of Art Deco furnishing in the country.

 

 

You will see art deco infill going up queen city ave., heading west. Many apartment buildings, either 4 or 8 units I would assume. You'll know them when you see them. If I'm not mistaken there are some on Glenway too.

 

There are many in Clifton as well

I'm with you David, I LOVE Art Deco.  There is a middle school in the west end of Williamsport that I'm pretty sure is considered Art Deco, I'll try to get a photo of soon.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=columbus%20ohio%20art%20deco&w=all

I totally forgot about these 

• The Coast Guard Station
  
• The LTV Building
  
• A great deal of the interior of TowerCity/ Cleveland Union Terminal
  

There used to be an Art Deco Society in Cincy. Don't think its around anymore.

 

Apparently Deco was populiar with Aussies and Kiwis.  There is an entire town rebuilt in a deco style in New Zealand after it was destroyed in an earthquake in 1930...vist the Napier Art Deco Trust

 

Two neat examples from Louisville:

 

Bowman Field Terminal  Bowman was Louisville's "Lunken", airport for the Ford Trimotor/DC-3 era.

 

 

And the Seagrams Distillery.  This is really something else.  Big buildings done up in brick and stone.  I used to drive by this a lot and it was a recognized local landmark.  These are just two buildings of a multi-building complex

 

 

Click on the links for gallerys showing some of the detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art Deco architecture was accompanied by expensive materials.  I really want to say that some post modernism is an incredibly watered down version of it....you know the geometries and such.

It depends on the design to some extent.  In some cases it is really bad, just changing the colors and framing of the glazing on a curtain wall.  Others designs try to do a bit more.

 

But you cant really equal that craftsmanship and materials of true "high deco".

 

 

Why did this style only last a decade or two

 

 

I don't think it ever caught on in the U.S.  While there were a good number of public structures in the style, it seems most homes were in "period" styles: mock tudors, colonials, etc.  Perhaps Art Deco was too European for Americans, and we wanted to isolate ourselves.

Did it catch on in Europe for houses?  I know it was an interiors style too, but dont recall much Euro-deco housing?

 

In the US it was a popular commercial style as well as for government things.

 

 

 

 

I've seen quite a few late art deco styled apartment buildings in some cities.  My only guess why it didn't become all that popular was because of the depression and World War II.  The late 40's and into 50's then brought different styles and typologies.

There was an Art Deco tour of Cleveland in 2006 organized by the Twentieth Century Society that attracted an international crowd (and had some advanced publicity on UrbanOhio.)  Lots of nice photographs and detailed historic/architectural information at: www.tcscm.org.  Click on the "Cleveland 2006" link.

^ what a fantastic website, organization and tour of cle deco. the pics/comments are awesome!

 

ohio is lucky to be chalk full of great deco stuff.

 

more deco/art moderne can be found on my 3 threads on the grand concourse, a grand boulevard of deco apt buildings in the bronx. the deco is what inspired me to tour it so closely.

 

i really gotta get to napier, nz one day.

The Chrysler Building in New York is sometimes considered the greatest example of Art Deco, but often the title falls on Cincinnati's Union Terminal.  I think Cincinnati has one of the biggest collections of art deco hiding around town, mostly influenced by the construction of Carew and Union Terminal.  You can see certain elements of those buildings that were mimicked in smaller constructions all around town.  Lunken Airport is a good example; the design of the terminal shows the link between the up and coming airplane and the streamlined aspect of the style.  There are also quite a few factories around Cincinnati that are/were good examples.  The Crosley Building in Camp Washington (again the design is linked to modern cars/radios produced by Crosley) as well as the former Milecron Factory in Norwood that is now home to the parking lot of Target and Meijer.  There are a few books that I do not have with me right now that point out lots of fine examples of Cincinnati's Art Deco architecture).  I know there are a few old movie theaters, one on the corner of Gilbert and McMillan in Walnut Hills, and another in Corryville on Reading that utilized Art Deco style in order to portray the popular and modern content of the building.

 

It was definately a "modern" movement in one of the many senses of the word.  The style was heavily influenced by state of the art technology of the time, which led to the term streamlined being associated with Art Deco.  Most of the buildings in the style were often owned by a person or company wanting to portray that they were sleek, modern, and thinking of the future.  Car companies, radio companies, movie theaters, etc.  There were also trains modeled in art-deco, which is how Union Terminal came into the style.  It's also interesting that the term Art Deco comes from the fact that it was, at the time, thought to be purely decoration as opposed to other popular styles of the time. 

Art Deco is my favorite style by far.  I always assumed it looked too opulent after the depression so people shied away and never went back.  Everything since seems like some form of mockery.  The same pattern is visible in culture at large-- nothing is valid anymore unless it's ironic and at least mildly disturbing.  I'd love if we could go back to making things pretty for the sake of having pretty things.

^Me too. I'm sick of our suburban culture with all its worthless Beavis and Butthead looking garbage. The funniest thing about our country is that our NEWER suburban crap is so expensive! "Oh, the precious schools!" :lol:

 

How can we call ourselves the best country in the world when we look like a sick joke that has gone completely mad? We actually are a culture that takes out mortgages we can't afford just to live in a socially-isolating environment surrounded by vinyl-sided boxes and Wal-Farts. One can't help but get the impression we really do want to destroy ourselves.

 

Bring back art deco, it was one of the things America was best at. Almost everything after art deco sucks. Perhaps art deco was our last attempt at building something worthwhile...

 

I think you should change that to

For hardcore Decophiles, the 10th World Congress on Art Deco will be in Montreal this year: May 24-30, 2009.  There are over 30 Art Deco Societies around the world; most belong to the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies (ICADS.)  ICADS organizes a World Congress every two years.  These are really fun events, attracting people from around the world, and a chance to see a lot of venues that are not typically open to the public.  Registration is due by March 20th.  Details at: www.artdecomontreal.com. 

The Niagra Mohawk is outrageous.  Is that colored accent lighting original?

 

Here is a percursor to Deco style skyscapers--Finnish archictect/US design competition:  1922. Saarinens' Tribune Tower competition entry

 

 

 

Two years later, in NYC, the American Radiator building. Another early deco thing

 

 

Both of these preceded the Arts Decoratifs exhibition in Paris of 1925, that gave the style its name.

 

So "Art Deco" is an interesting art-historical "problem" as well as a fantastic style.  It was very popular. Even in engineering, like in some of the viaducts and bridges in Cincinnati, and the Lake Shore Drive bridges details in Chicago.

 

What is so cool about this is that it was such a "city style" or that it quickly became associated with urbanism and "downtown".  Even the smaller citys in Ohio have their art deco set piece high or mid rise (Lima, Middletown, Mansfield).

Leaving the 1930s, the tallest buildings in Dayton, Toledo, Youngstown, and Akron were art deco.

 

The architecture history folks actually quibble with all this being called Art Deco - a lot of is actually Art Moderne. Most of the explanation for its decline comes from the association with the early Depression era and the amount labor it took to design. It got run over by the international style after the war - which is so very sad. There is also a bit of the Baroque into Rococo that some felt was going on with the Art Deco/Moderne style. I still think it is the best variation of modern architecture.

There were some intereresting tranistional buildings in the 1930s:

 

Field Building. Last pre-war skyscraper in the Loop (1928-34, 1928 seems early for this design).  Deco massing, but minimalist facade.  Interior still has the deco attention to detail.

 

 

 

And NYC, McGraw-Hill, 1931.  You can see the postwar skyscraper buried within the "deco" massing (but that cap still has the streamlined deco touch, as does the ground floor/entrance)

 

 

Now I hope Cronenberg doesn't rip me off...

 

Maybe you should delete that then.  It's pretty good.  Do some character sketches and a treatment for it.

I love that building. I'm surprised it's still there considering many of Syracuse's original buildings are either in disrepair or gone. What's left of the architecture in that city is beautiful and I think that building is a crown jewel.

Cleveland selected to host the 2017 World Congress on Art Deco.

At the 2011 World Congress on Art Deco in Rio de Janerio, delegates from the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies (ICADS) selected Cleveland to host the 2017 World Congress.  The 20th Century Society USA (www.20thcs.org) nominated Cleveland and made the presentation. World Congresses attract Art Deco enthusiasts from around the world; we hope to have a strong group of volunteers in place by 2017 to show the world all Cleveland has to offer...including Art Deco!  The theme of the Congress will be "Artists, Designers, and Craftsmen," to focus on Cleveland's strong tradition of Art Deco art and craftsmanship, and in particular industrial design.