American Art Deco

Modernistic Architecture and Regionalism

Browse Return to Previous Page       Related Subjects All Subjects Architecture

by Carla Breeze

W. W. Norton and Co.

Due/Published December 2002, 320 pages, cloth

ISBN 0393019705

Art deco architecture flourished in large cities and small towns throughout America in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of the best examples—office buildings, movie theaters, hotels, and churches—are still in use. Deco architects, artists, and designers drew on European styles but were most committed to a style that grew organically, as they saw it, from their native soil. Two themes bound Deco buildings and their decorative schemes together: a regional pride that tied buildings to their specific locales and functions, and a growing national symbolism that asserted the buildings' identity as uniquely, independently American.

American Art Decofeatures descriptions—and over 500 color photographs—of seventy-five lavish and innovatively designed buildings across the country that have been preserved both outside and in, giving the full scope of this style.