ART DECO
The style we call Art Deco had its beginnings at a 1925 Paris exhibition organized by the French government to celebrate modernism in architecture and decorative arts. The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes displayed the works of 15,000 exhibitors from 20 countries (not including the U.S.*), and was visited by 16 million people. Even though the U.S. declined to participate, it was attended by hundreds of American designers, artists, journalists and department store buyers.
It was not until the 1960s that the style became known as Art Deco.
The Jazz Age Junkie is not an expert on Art Deco – far from it – but she can tell you a few things to see and a few places to go to learn more about it and celebrate it.
As a style, Art Deco influenced everything that could be built, manufactured, molded, sewn, drawn, painted or just dreamed. Here are a few wonderful things to feast your eyes on and perhaps dream about.
*The story is that Herbert Hoover, at the time the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, said the reason the U.S. declined to participate was due to the fact that there was no modern art in the United States.
Architecture
San Francisco
Timothy Pfleuger Buildings
The Pacific Telephone Building
140 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA, USA
No longer the home of Pacific Telephone, this spectacular office building is now known as 140 New Montgomery, but it…
The Castro Theater
429 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA, USA
The beautiful Castro Theater (1922) has been home to some thrilling film festivals for as long as the Jazz Age…
Medical Arts Building
450 Sutter Street, Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA, USA
Like Timothy Pfleuger’s first Art Deco wonder, this building is also known by its address, 450 Sutter. The lobby ceiling…
The Stock Exchange Building
155 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA, USA
The Stock Exchange Building was built in 1915 and remodeled by Timothy Pleuger in 1930. He was required to keep…
George Kelham Buildings
The Russ Building
235 Montgomery
Not completely Art Deco in style, but totally Jazz Age nonetheless, the Russ Building embraced all the latest technology of the era and was the place to have an office if you were anybody who was somebody. There’s a wonderful little museum just off the fabulous lobby that will transport you to 1927 when the building opened. It was the largest office building on the Pacific Coast and the only one with underground parking.
The Shell Building
100 Bush Street
Built in 1929 for the oil company, Shell USA, the Shell Building is Gothic Moderne and pretty much covered with decorative shells.
Other Art Deco Treasures
Coit Tower
Golly, is there anything more beautiful than the shimmering, gracefully fluted Coit Tower on a moonlit, fogless night in Baghdad by the Bay? Sited on precipitous Telegraph Hill, surrounded by the delicate branches of evergreens, it is the romantic backdrop to many a San Francisco love story. Go inside to see the American Social Realist murals, sponsored by the Public Works of Art Project in 1934, that depict the struggles and resilience of Californians during the Great Depression.
The Malloch Building
And while you are on Telegraph Hill, be sure to see this Streamline Moderne apartment house by architect Irvin Goldstine, famous for its role in Dark Passage as the abode of Lauren Bacall. She hides San Quentin escapee Humphrey Bogart there as the mystery of his wife’s murder is uncovered. The silver murals facing Montgomery are worth more than a passing glance.
The Late Great Fox Theatre
The Jazz Age was the era of grand movie palaces, and the San Francisco Bay Area was home to some of the grandest. Still standing – the Paramount in Oakland, the Grand Lake in Oakland, and the Castro. Not standing (thanks to a vote of the people!) is the magnificent 1929 Fox Theater on Market street that met the wrecking ball in 1963.
The Golden Gate Bridge
The International Orange Golden Gate Bridge must be the most famous (and photographed) bridge in the world. With its many Art Deco chevron shapes in the details and Deco light fixtures, it suggests strength and style at the same time. And don’t just admire it from a distance (or from a moving vehicle), you need to walk it (preferably from north to south to enjoy the view of The City) to fully appreciate its artistry.
The Marina
The Marina District was largely developed during the Jazz Age, which accounts for the numerous Art Deco structures within its boundaries. Walk along Chestnut Street between Fillmore and Avila, and look at the pediments on the north side of the street to see a variety of Art Deco motifs. At Fillmore Street, be sure to take in the Marina Middle School designed by George Kelham and William Day.
Los Angeles
Art Deco is everywhere you look in Los Angeles and its suburbs. The following is the slightest smattering of essential viewing. The Jazz Age Junkie is most enamored of the Deco in Hollywood and Downtown, but other hot spots include Long Beach, Glendale and Santa Monica.
The Eastern Columbia Building
849 South Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Once upon a time, many moons ago, the Jazz Age…
Coca Cola Building
1200 S Central Ave, Compton, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Perhaps because the Jazz Age Junkie is enamored of ocean…
The Wiltern Theater and Pellissier Building
3780 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Another magnificent Art Deco building clad in glazed architectural terra-cotta…
Sunset Tower
8358 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA, USA
When it was completed in 1931, the sublime fifteen-story Streamline…
Union Station
800 North Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Los Angeles’ Union Station is admittedly a mishmash of architectural…
Crossroads of the World
6671 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Before his Coca Cola Building, Robert V. Derrah designed the …
Griffith Observatory
2800 E Observatory Rd, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Sitting on the southern slope of Mount Hollywood in Griffith…
Hollyhock House
4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, USA
“The greatest American Architect of all time,”* Frank Lloyd Wright,…
The James Oviatt Building
617 South Olive Street, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Today, the home of Cicada Restaurant and Lounge, the Oviatt…
Bullocks Wilshire (Southwestern Law School)
3050 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Today it is the campus of Southwestern Law School, but…
Los Angeles Central Public Library
630 W 5th St, Los Angeles, CA, USA
The original Goodhue Building (1925) was named after the architect…
New York
Manhattan is, of course, Art Deco skyscraper heaven. There is no way the Jazz Age Junkie can do it justice on these 21st century pages. All she can do is make a list and then refer you to the real experts and the books they’ve written. But most of all she would like to encourage you not only to visit, but to walk, walk, walk. Walk past them, walk around them and, most of all, enter their lobbies, enjoying every sumptuous detail of their wall art, ceilings, elevator doors, light fixtures and letter boxes.
Letter Box, French Building
Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Ave.
1 Wall Street (Another magnificent lobby!)
1 Wall Street
RCA Building (later, General Electric Building)
570 Lexington Ave.
The Chrysler Building (the cat’s pajamas of Art Deco!)
405 Lexington Ave.
The Carlyle Hotel
35 E. 76th Street
American Radiator Building
40 W. 40th Street
The Fred F. French Building (Golly, what a lobby!)
551 5th Ave.
The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
301 Park Ave.
Rockefeller Center (19 buildings)
45 Rockefeller Plaza
The Empire State Building
20 W. 24th St.
Art Deco on Film
Following its introduction at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, the style that was later to be called Art Deco began to proliferate around the world at an extraordinary rate. Part of its rapid rise in popularity everywhere was the result of what people were seeing in the movies. And what people were seeing in the movies were the artistic visions of two extremely influential art directors – Cedric Gibbons at M-G-M and Van Nest Polglase at RKO.
The handsome and impressively dapper Cedric Gibbons was perhaps the only Hollywood art director to attend the 1925 Exposition in Paris, and came back to M-G-M with Art Deco designs virtually exploding out of his imagination onto the screen. Some of his earliest movies with moderne sets were Our Dancing Daughters (1928, silent), Grand Hotel (1932, talking) and Dinner at Eight (1933, talking), all of which told stories of the rich and stylish in luxurious settings. Gibbons, who was married at the time to Delores del Rio, lived in a famously Deco house, and designed interiors for some of the biggest celebrities of the era such as Ramon Navarro.
Our Dancing Daughters (1928)
Meanwhile, over at RKO, Van Nest Polglase was developing the “Big White Set,” which became the hallmark of the Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire series of 1930s dancing extravaganzas.
Fred and Ginger dance their way through Van Nest Polglase’s (and associate Carroll Clark’s) fantastical Art Deco nightclubs, ultra-luxurious hotel rooms, gleaming white cruise ships and dreamy visions of European cities, helping millions of Depression-era moviegoers cope with real life. Films like Flying Down to Rio (1933) and Top Hat (1935) can also help you, a 21st century stressed-out, bad-news-weary, leave terra firma for a more ethereal experience.