You’re in New York to sightsee, wandering around and searching for the best places to go. If you’re interested in architecture, you might go to one of the most well-known landmarks in New York: Empire State building, famous for its architectural mastery despite being built in the early 1930s. The building used new engineering techniques for that era such as steel-frame construction and the usage of the elevator to go up extremely high floors, How Stuff Works explains. However, less well known in New York’s architectural history is the closely-related Chrysler building.
At 318.9 meters tall, the Chrysler building was built almost at the same time as the Empire State building, losing in the race of heights when the Empire State building was completed to be 443.2 meters tall. Both buildings are actually very iconic examples of the 1930s art deco movement.
The art deco movement is a decorative and architectural movement first originated in the 1910s and the 1920s. It was first displayed in the “Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes”, an international exhibition held in Paris in 1925, where the style got its name.
The style is mostly characterized by simple, geometric shapes, heavy symmetry, and often with a ‘streamlined’ look. It often used expensive materials like jade, silver, ivory, obsidian, chrome, and rock crystal. The movement was greatly influenced by the art nouveau movement and also American Indian and Egyptian decorative ideas.
But why did this movement emerge during this time period? The early 20th century was an age of technological and modern progress, during the period between the two World Wars. The architecture of this movement symbolized the reverence and fantasy for the machine age and economic development. The clean geometric lines and shapes emphasize the efficiency of the machine age, while the rich industrial materials show the luxury and prosperity of the time period.
The movement declined to the start of World War II, when simple and functional modernism took over. However, you can still encounter remains of it today. One of them, still famous and appreciated for its architectural beauty, is the Chrysler building mentioned earlier. The building is considered to be the ‘best example’ of art deco architecture. For example, the building is decorated by a sunburst shaped crown made out of stainless steel and the chrome-plated gargoyles built after the Chrysler car hood ornaments. In popular media, the designs of Gotham city in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film, is a good example of art deco design. So, it can be said that the Art deco style is still appreciated today.
If you get a chance to visit New York city, look for the famous Chrysler building. Look at the details and appreciate how the remains of the ‘era of progress’ during the 1910s and 1920s survives today.