This year marks the centenary of a landmark Paris exhibition: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts), in 1925. The term ‘art deco’ is a snappy derivation of its title. Deco – characterised by clean lines, bold geometric shapes and jazzy colours – was seen as thrustingly modern. And it had a global appeal: the Paris fair hosted exhibitors from 20 countries.
I would argue that the movement had its roots in the 1910s (it was influenced by cubist art from the decade) and hit its peak in the 1920s and 30s. It manifested in all areas of culture, from homeware and jewellery to fashion and cars, but most famously in architecture.
The style was rampantly eclectic, plucking inspiration from Aztec, Mayan, Egyptian, ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Deco got a second wind in the 1930s, with its equally popular, more sleek and pared-down iteration – streamline moderne. Arguably, art deco wasn’t as ground-breaking as modernism – its decorative quality and figurative elements are unmistakably of their time. But the style’s more avant-garde elements – its clean lines and simplicity – still feel contemporary and, tellingly, young designers are inspired by deco architecture today.
Selecting the best examples of deco architecture is a tough call, but here’s an expert’s pick of nine of the finest examples from around the world.
Dominic Lutyens is journalist and author specialising in architecture and design. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines and check out our latest travel guides written by local experts.
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1. The Daily Express Building, London
This Grade II*-listed building with a 1932 design by Ellis & Clarke, revised later by Owen Williams, is in the streamline moderne style. Its tiered façade with rounded corners is mainly made of Vitrolite (robust, opaque black glass), adorned only by gleaming, slimline chrome bands forming a subtle grid. Yet its lobby is sumptuously decorated: it was created by Robert Atkinson, who commissioned deco designer Betty Joel to dream up its steel furniture, while the walls are embellished with glistening gold and silver murals by sculptor Eric Aumonier.
2. The Chrysler Building, New York City
Of Manhattan’s early twentieth-century skyscrapers, the Chrysler Building is the most iconic and recognisably deco, thanks to its tower crowned by typically Deco sunburst motifs bubbling skywards. In my view, the sunburst pattern recalls radio waves, signalling modernity and technological progress. The building was designed by William Van Alen for Walter P Chrysler, head of the Chrysler Corporation, and was completed in 1930. While it may look simple, the tower is elaborately decorated, studded with eagle-shaped gargoyles and details inspired by Chrysler radiator caps.
3. Alex Theatre, Los Angeles
Deco cinemas in the interwar years hugely popularised this aesthetic, given the new movie palaces mass appeal. The Alexander Theatre (later abbreviated to Alex Theatre) opened in 1925 as a venue for vaudeville performances and silent movies. Today it’s a performing arts centre. It’s very showy – aptly, given its proximity to Tinseltown. An obelisk, neon-lit by night, looms above the entrance. The ticket office leads to the lobby via a large, open-air forecourt inspired by Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, a route that adds drama to the space.
4. Art Deco Historic District, Miami
Thanks to Barbara Baer Capitman and her son, John – co-founders in 1975 of the Miami Design Preservation League – long-neglected deco architecture on South Beach was extensively renovated. This area contains the world’s highest concentration of deco buildings (hotels, homes and shops), mostly built in the streamline moderne style, many in ice-cream pastels. Local architect Lawrence Murray Dixon dreamt up many of its hotels, such as the curvilinear Marlin of 1939 that boasts a façade in powder blue and buttermilk yellow.
5. Eros Cinema, Mumbai
Deco architecture flourished in India, particularly in Mumbai. The country’s burgeoning middle classes lapped up Western influences, commissioning residences, hotels and movie theatres in a deco style that nevertheless incorporated indigenous motifs, such as stylised peacocks. Businessman Shiavax Cawasji Cambata commissioned architect Shorabji Bhedwar to design the monumental Eros Cinema on Marine Drive in 1935. Its stepped façade pairs smooth ivory walls with the rich earthy brown of red Agra sandstone. Its opulent foyer has a boldly patterned black and white marble floor and Classical and Indian friezes.
6. Eltham Palace, London
Originally built in the fourteenth century, Eltham Palace in southeast London was badly damaged during the Civil War. In 1933, Stephen Courtauld (a scion of the textile family) and his wife, Virginia, restored its medieval hall and added a new extension with a show-stoppingly glamorous deco interior, overseen by architects Seely & Paget. Designer Rolf Engström created its domed circular entrance hall. A black and gold door in the dining room is adorned with images of exotic beasts, including the couple’s pet ring-tailed lemur, called Mah-Jongg. Virginia’s breathtakingly ritzy bathroom had an onyx bath backed by a shimmering gold mosaic.
7. Palais de Tokyo, Paris
This vast, complex building in Paris’s 16th arrondissement comprises two wings connected by a colonnade, interlinked with a plaza, a rectangular pool and a fountain. It was designed for the 1937 International Art and Technical Exhibition by architects Jean-Claude Dondel, André Aubert, Paul Viard and Marcel Dastugue, and now houses twentieth-century and contemporary art. The imposing building with soaring columns is redolent of bombastic, nationalistic 1930s architecture but its predominantly stark aesthetic is softened by large ornate friezes of languid human figures by Alfred Auguste Janniot.
8. Central Fire Station, Auckland
Auckland has a high quota of arresting deco buildings, including its Central Fire Station, designed by Daniel Boys Patterson and completed in 1944. As befits the building’s functional character, the fire station is in the streamline moderne style – as were the residential units housing its live-in staff. This being a deco building, functionalism coexists with high style: its geometric façade is decorated with elegant fluted columns and zigzags, all painted a quintessentially deco eau-de-nil shade.
9. The Hoover Building, London
This flamboyant Grade II*-listed building in West London borders the A40, and was designed by architects Wallis, Gilbert and Partners for The Hoover Company. It housed the vacuum cleaner maker’s HQ and factory, and opened in 1933. Poet John Betjeman identified the flamboyant decoration on its exterior as Mayan and Aztec-influenced – such ornamentation was intended to be uplifting for employees. Said architect Thomas Wallis paternalistically: ‘A little money spent in… decoration, especially colour, is not money wasted. It has a psychological effect on the worker.’
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