Art Deco Architecture

Thoroughly modern, but with some flair and subtle historicism

« All Arche-tecture | Last Updated 2022

Art Deco architecture preserves a retro-futuristic, metropolis-sized feel in its buildings, a wonderful time capsule of a flashier age. Standing beneath their gold accents, geometric flourishes, and monolithic forms, you get a sense of the progress and might that the builders would have guessed was modern and forward-looking at the time. All you need are some stylized spotlights lighting up the blocky behemoth in front of you, and maybe a little Jazz music, and you may as well be in your own version of a retro travel poster for 1920s-era New York City or Chicago.

The French introduced the world to this progressive aesthetic at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925, where it got its (thankfully shorter) name. The flashy style was unabashedly “modern”, establishing one core tenet of what that term meant in architectural spheres by moving away from the heavy ornament of styles like Beaux-Arts that came before it. It also employed newer, opulent materials along with bold colors, a combination that gave buildings an air of luxury and exclusivity which appropriately captured the Gatsby-esque spirit of the Roaring Twenties and gave the WWI-weary populace just what it needed.

Later “modern” styles would build on the precedent that Art Deco created, with Streamline Moderne, the International Style, and Brutalism all minimalizing building forms further and more deliberately. Importantly, though, Art Deco architecture still left room for some decorative flourishes, and it even allowed references to the designs of Aztec, Persian and Greek civilizations in its stylized details, which its successors would completely forgo. Perhaps because it struck this balance, Art Deco would go on to become one of the most iconic and enduring styles in history.