Jordan University of Science and TechnologyCollege of Architecture and Design / Department of Architecture Arch. 331 Modern Architecture

Instructor: Dr. Raed Al Tal Summer 2012

Art Deco

Art Deco

Until the market crash of October 1929, the 1920s in America had witnessed one of the biggest building booms in history .

It was the time of Art Deco skyscrapers

It was the time when the mass-produced motor car came of age , and the construction of the first cross country highway in 1927, the most profound of the American landscape got seriously underway , the heyday of the railroads was gone

The main role of the skyscraper was commercialIn the 1920s the type went national

In the 1920s the type went national

It symbolized capitalistic success, and most respecting cities built at least one, even when the economic justification for it was not there

New York ; high skyscrapers turn the streets of the city into sunless canyons and creating inhuman working conditions within to stop the problem the city passed the intricate Zoning Ordinance of 1916

It prescribed that after rising sheer from the pavement for a certain height – this depending on the size of the lot and the width of the street – the building had to be pulled back in a series of setbacks .

Only then could a spire be lifted as high as the owner wished

Factors behind the birth Art DecoZoning Ordinance of 1916 The restrictive legislation was a tonic for skyscraper design. It meant that the massing and therefore the profile of tall buildings could be manipulated for dramatic effectThe ordinance made it easy to abandon the habit of thinking of the skyscraper as affinitive to the classical column

The International Style had produced no tall buildings of the kind the Americans sought ( horizontal boxes with emphasize on the interior volume at the expense of mass )

The City Beautiful Movement , the classical look was to be expected The Gothic skyscraper, the Gothic stressed the height

The machine aesthetic of progressive European designers and the 1925 Paris fair , the Exposition of des Arts Decoratifs et Industierls ( Exposition of Decorative and Modern Industrial Arts) from the Art Deco gets its name

It is a movement that sought to upgrade industrial design in competition with “fine art”

The use of new materials into decorative patterns that could be either machined or handcrafted and that could to a degree reflect the simplifying trend in architecture

It was an event in the history of industrial design not in the history of architecture

In a short time the whole repertory of angular and curvilinear forms was developed, none of it related to historical styles Rendered in metal , terra-cotta , or some other bright veneer , this ornament was woven into the exterior walls , entrances, lobbies

All put in symmetrical organic, tapered shapes and forms

By 1930s, the taste for the streamlined (aerodynamic) shapes becomes more noticeable, inspired by the streamlining in transport design

streamlined (aerodynamic) to reduce resistance as they move through air or water as well as aesthetically pleasing

Nautical details from the new luxury liners- curved walls, circular windows or windows with rounded corners , handrails of tubular metal- pass into urban architecture

As a cultural phenomena Art Deco associated with Jazz Age style

Chrysler was noted for its innovations in the 1930s. In 1934, the company showed off the Airflow, the first car built in Detroit with the use of a wind tunnel.

Chrysler Building William Van Alen, New York1928 - 1930

Chrysler Building William Van Alen, New York1928 - 1930

It has 77 floors. Eiffel Tower (984 feet) was built in 1889Bank of Manhattan Building in 1929 at 927 feet (71 stories)

It was overtaken by the Empire State Building as the tallest building in the world in 1931.

The decoration on the tower looks like the front of Chrysler cars.

A glittering spire, a stunning crown honoring the business Achievements of the great auto manufacturer

Sign of the power of economy before the Great Depression

it was one of the first skyscrapers to make a major use of metal in its construction and adornment

The building is clad in white brick and dark gray brickwork is used as horizontal decoration to enhance the window rows.

The eccentric crescent-shaped steps of the spire are made of chrome-nickel steel as a stylized sunburst motif, and underneath it immense steel chimeras depicting American eagles, which stare over the city.

The building has a lot of ornamentation that is based on features that were being used on Chrysler cars of the day.

The corners of the sixty first floor are graced with eagles, replicas of the 1929 Chrysler hood ornaments.

At the thirty first story, the corner ornamentations are replicas of 1929 Chrysler radiator caps

Chrysler Building · New York, New York

Chrysler Building · New York, New York

Chrysler Building · New York, New York

Chrysler Building · New York, New York

Chrysler Building · New York, New York

The Plan to Build the Empire State Building

May 1, 1931, it was the tallest building in the world - standing at 1,250 feet tall.

Owner : John Jakob Raskob (previously a vice president of General Motors)

After deciding on and obtaining a site for the skyscraper, Raskob needed a plan.

Raskob hired Shreve, Lamb & Harmon to be the architects for his new building.

It is said that Raskob pulled a thick pencil out of a drawer and held it up to William Lamb and asked, "Bill, how high can you make it so that it won't fall down?"1