Streamline Moderne

*Bather's Building*, now the Maritime Museum (1937) in San Francisco's Aquatic Park, evokes a streamlined double–ended ferryboat

Judge's tower in the Aquatic Park Historic District, San Francisco

See also: Streamline Moderne architecture

Streamline Moderne, sometimes referred to by either name alone, was a late type of the Art Deco design style which emerged during the 1930s. Its architectural style emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements.

Background

As the depression decade of the 1930s progressed, Americans saw a new aspect of the Art Deco style emerge in the marketplace: Streamlining. The Streamlining concept was first created by industrial designers who stripped Art Deco design of its fauna and flora in favor of the aerodynamic pure-line concept of motion and speed developed from scientific thinking. As a result an array of designers quickly ultra-modernized and streamlined the designs of everyday objects. Manufacturers of clocks, radios, telephones, cars, furniture and numerous other household appliances embraced the concept with open arms.

The style was the first to incorporate electric light into architectural structure. In the First Class dining room of the SS Normandie, fitted out 1933 – 35, twelve tall pillars of Lalique glass and 38 columns lit from within illuminated the room. The Strand Palace Hotel foyer (1930), preserved from demolition by the Victoria and Albert Museum during 1969, was one of the first uses of internally-lit architectural glass, and coincidentally was the first Moderne interior preserved in a museum.

The Streamline Moderne was both a reaction to Art Deco and a reflection of austere economic times. Gone was unnecessary ornament. Sharp angles were replaced with simple, aerodynamic curves. Exotic woods and stone were replaced with cement and glass.

Art Deco and Streamline Moderne were not necessarily opposites. Streamline Moderne buildings with a few Deco elements were not uncommon but the prime movers behind streamline design (Raymond Loewy, Walter Dorwin Teague, Gilbert Rohde, Norman Bel Geddes) all disliked Art Deco, seeing it as effete, falsely modern, essentially a fraud.

Architecture

Common characteristics of Streamline Moderne and Art Moderne

Horizontal orientation
Rounded edges, corner windows, and glass block walls
Glass block
Porthole windows
Chrome hardware
Smooth exterior wall surfaces, usually stucco (smooth plaster finish)
Flat roof with coping
Horizontal grooves or lines in walls
Subdued colors: base colors were typically light earth tones, off-whites, or beiges; and trim colors were typically dark colors (or bright metals) to contrast from the light base.

The Normandie Hotel, which opened during 1942, is built in the stylized shape of Normandie the ship, and it includes the ship's original sign.

Although Streamline Moderne houses are less common than streamline commercial buildings, residences do exist. The Lydecker House in Los Angeles, built by Howard Lydecker, is an example of Streamline Moderne design in residential architecture. In tract development, elements of the style were frequently used as a variation in post-war row housing in San Francisco's Sunset District.

Notable examples

1926 — Long Beach Airport Main Terminal, Long Beach, California
1928 — Lockheed Vega, designed by John Knudsen Northrop, a six-passenger single engine aircraft, made famous by the use of Amelia Earhart.
1930 — Strand Palace Hotel, London. Foyer designed by Oliver P. Bernard
1930-1934 — Broadway Mansions, Shanghai, designed by B. Flazer of Palmer and Turner
1931 — The Eaton's Seventh Floor (including the Eaton Auditorium and the Round Room restaurant) in Toronto, Canada, designed by Jacques Carlu, located in the former Eaton's department store.
1931 — Napier, New Zealand, rebuilt in Art Deco and Streamline Moderne styles after a major earthquake.
1933 — Southgate tube station, London
1933 — Burnham Beeches in Sherbrooke, Victoria, Australia. Harry Norris architect.
1933 — The Lawson "Zephyr" clock designed by Kem Weber for Lawson Time of Alhambra, California.
1933 — Merle Norman Building, Santa Monica, California See also History of Santa Monica, California
1933 — Midland Hotel, Morecambe, England.
1933-1940 — The interior of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, designed by Alfred Shaw
1934 — Chrysler Airflow, the first mass-market streamline automotive design
1934 — Hotel Shangri-La (Santa Monica), California
1935 — Ford Building, San Diego, California, Balboa Park
1935 — The De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, England
1935 — Pan Pacific Auditorium, Los Angeles, California
1935 — Edificio Internacional de Capitalización, Mexico City, Mexico
1935 — The Hindenburg, Zeppelin passenger accommodations
1935 — The interior of Lansdowne House on Berkeley Square in Mayfair, London is redesigned and redecorated in the Art Moderne style and opens as the Lansdowne Club.
1936 — Florin Court, on Charterhouse Square in London, built by Guy Morgan and Partners. It became 'Whitehaven Mansions', the fictional residence of Hercule Poirot, in the 1980s filming of the TV series based on Agatha Christie's mystery stories.
1937 — B and B Chemical Company, at 780 Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, built by Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch & Abbott and added to the National Historic Register in 1982.
1937 — Belgium Pavilion, at the Exposition Internationale, Paris
1937 — TAV Studios (Brenemen's Restaurant), Hollywood, California
1937 — Minerva (or Metro) Theatre and the Minerva Building, Potts Point, New South Wales, Australia
1937 — Bather's Building in the Aquatic Park, now the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Maritime Museum, with exhibits and social halls.
1937 — Barnum Hall (High School auditorium), Santa Monica, California
1937 — J.W. Knapp Company Building (department store) Lansing, Michigan
1937 — Wan Chai Market, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
1937 — River Oaks Shopping Center, Houston, Texas
1938 — Mark Keppel High School, Alhambra, California
1938 — Normandie building, Mar del Plata, Argentina
1939 — Coca-Cola Building (Los Angeles), California
1939 — Marine Air Terminal, La Guardia Airport, New York
1939 — Road Island Diner, Oakley, Utah
1939 — New York World's Fair
1939 — Cardozo Hotel, Ocean Drive, South Beach, Miami Beach, Florida
1940 — Gabel Kuro jukebox designed by Brooks Stevens
1940 — Greyhound Bus Station, Ann Arbor, Michigan
1940 — Jai Alai Building, Taft Avenue Manila, Philippines (demolished)
1940 — Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, California
1940 — Las Vegas Union Pacific Station, Las Vegas, Nevada
1941 — Avalon Hotel, Ocean Drive, South Beach, Miami Beach, Florida
1942 — Normandie Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico
1942 — Mercantile National Bank Building, Dallas
1944 — Huntridge Theater, Las Vegas, Nevada
1946 — Gerry Building, Los Angeles, California
1947 — Sears Building, Santa Monica, California
1948 — Greyhound Bus Station, Cleveland, Ohio
1949 — Sault Memorial Gardens, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
1957-2006— Star Ferry Pier, Central, Hong Kong (demolished)
1957 — Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Pier, Hong Kong

Influences

Industrial and consumer product design

The style was applied to appliances such as electric clocks, sewing machines, small radio receivers and vacuum cleaners. Their manufacturing processes exploited developments in materials science including aluminum and bakelite.

Chrysler Airflow (advertisement comparing the car to the streamlined train M-10000)

Chrysler Airflow (advertisement comparing the car to the streamlined train M-10000)
Airstream trailer
Toaster

Motion pictures

The buildings in Frank Capra's 1937 movie Lost Horizon, designed by Stephen Goosson
The design of the "Emerald City" in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz
The main character's helmet and rocket pack in the 1991 movie The Rocketeer

References

External links

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