New York Art Deco

Anthony W. Robins

Description

Winner of a 2017–2018 New York City Book Award presented by the New York Society Library

Of all the world's great cities, perhaps none is so defined by its Art Deco architecture as New York. Lively and informative, New York Art Deco leads readers step-by-step past the monuments of the 1920s and '30s that recast New York as the world's modern metropolis. Anthony W. Robins, New York's best-known Art Deco guide, includes an introductory essay describing the Art Deco phenomenon, followed by eleven walking tour itineraries in Manhattan—each accompanied by a map designed by legendary New York cartographer John Tauranac—and a survey of Deco sites across the four other boroughs. Also included is a photo gallery of sixteen color plates by nationally acclaimed Art Deco photographer Randy Juster. In New York Art Deco, Robins has distilled thirty years' worth of experience into a guidebook for all to enjoy at their own pace.
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Art Deco New York
New York in the Jazz Age
The Skyscraper Architects
The Art Deco Look
The Art of Advertising
Filtering Out and Down Across the Metropolis
The Fall and Rise of Art Deco

A Note on the Itineraries

1. From Bowling Green to Wall Street

2. Civic Center and TriBeCa

3. From Murray Hill to Gramercy Park

4. The Garment District

5. Forty-Second Street East to West

6. From Beekman Place to Rockefeller Center to the Brill Building

7. From Bloomingdale’s to the Sofia Apartments

Color plates
Photographs by Randy Juster

8. Upper West Side: Central Park West

9. Upper West Side: Broadway and Riverside Drive

10. Upper East Side

11. Washington Heights

12. The Bronx

13. Brooklyn

14. Queens

15. Staten Island

A Note on Sources
References
Index

Sujets

• Película fotográfica
• History of architecture
• Visual culture
• Region
• Modernism
• Regional
• Film
• Architecture

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 20 avril 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 4
• EAN13: 9781438463988
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

Praise for
NEW YORK ART DECO
“Anthony Robins’s New York Art Deco fills a void in the design library of New York. Well organized by itineraries that begin at the very tip of Manhattan and work their way into the other four boroughs, it is filled with invaluable information on the monuments of Art Deco and French moderne structures whose design perfectly expresses the streamlined era when speed and movement were celebrated. This is a must-have book for every lover of Art Deco, whether you are a New Yorker or a visitor from New Zealand.”
— David Garrard Lowe, author of Art Deco New York
“The Art Deco style fits New York like a glove, from the skyscraping Chrysler Building to the little, eye-popping Lane Theater on Staten Island, and nobody knows it like Anthony Robins. If you thought you knew Art Deco—as I did, before I read his New York Art Deco —then buy this book and be surprised.”
— Christopher Gray, author of the former New York Times Streetscapes column
“Buy this book, take a few wonderful walks around the entire city (discovering some fine New York neighborhoods you probably have never been to), from the Grand Concourse and Washington Heights’ treasure trove of Deco to the Chrysler Building to Flatbush in Brooklyn, and ask yourself, do all those new glass towers in Manhattan leave you as delighted as Art Deco’s confections, whether seven stories or seventy? That generation knew how to make buildings that you really want to live in, work in, and walk by. Thank you, Anthony Robins, for giving us the keys to that kingdom.”
— Barry Lewis, architectural historian
“With the publication of New York Art Deco everyone, from the city explorer to the armchair reader, can now experience Anthony Robins’s dynamic Art Deco walking tours. Robins not only discusses the city’s famed Deco skyscrapers, but also identifies the spectacular but little-known Deco gems spread across the city. This book is a must for those who love New York and thrill to Art Deco architecture.”
— Andrew Scott Dolkart, author of The Row House Reborn: Architecture and Neighborhoods in New York City, 1908–1929
NEW YORK ART DECO
Silhouette of the Empire State Building superimposed over a map of New York State, designed by Oscar Bach, and located in the Fifth Avenue lobby of the Empire State Building. Photograph by Meghan Weatherby
NEW YORK ART DECO
A Guide to Gotham’s Jazz Age Architecture
Anthony W. Robins
COLOR PLATES BY RANDY JUSTER
MAPS BY JOHN TAURANAC
Frontispiece photograph by Meghan Weatherby
Photographs in gallery by Randy Juster
Author photo by Joyce Ravid
All additional photographs by the author
Published by
S TATE U NIVERSITY OF N EW Y ORK P RESS , A LBANY
© 2017 Anthony W. Robins
www.AnthonyWRobins.com
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
E XCELSIOR E DITIONS is an imprint of S TATE U NIVERSITY OF N EW Y ORK P RESS
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Laurie D. Searl
Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Robins, Anthony, author.
Title: New York art deco : a guide to Gotham’s jazz age architecture / Anthony W. Robins.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Series: Excelsior editions | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031440 (print) | LCCN 2016032159 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438463964 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438463988 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Art deco (Architecture)—New York (State)—New York—Guidebooks. | New York (N.Y.)—Buildings, structures, etc. | New York (N.Y.)—Tours.
Classification: LCC NA735.N5 R63 2017 (print) | LCC NA735.N5 (ebook) | DDC 720.9747—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031440
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the Art Deco Society of New York
Educating New Yorkers about their city’s Art Deco wonders for thirty years.
ART DECO: A name coined by the curators of a 1966 Paris exhibition looking back at 1920s design. The curators derived the name from the title of an enormously influential Paris exposition of 1925 devoted to contemporary trends in all the visual arts: Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts). Though Art Deco can be found around the world—in North and South America, Europe, parts of Asia and Africa, and Australia and New Zealand—in New York City it has a particular flavor, developed in the city’s great skyscrapers.
Though the term “Art Deco” can refer to all kinds of architectural design trends from the 1920s to the 1940s, it’s often used specifically to refer to the “vertical style” of late-1920s skyscrapers. The term “Moderne”—a shortening of the term “Style Moderne”—generally refers to buildings from the 1930s and ’40s with a horizontal rather than a vertical orientation, and noticeably streamlined curves. “WPA Moderne” refers to government buildings commissioned by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression; such buildings often combine Moderne styling with a stripped-down version of Classical columns and arches. During the 1930s, the style became known as “Modern Classic.” For the most part, this guidebook focuses on the earlier buildings, but does include several notable later examples.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Art Deco New York
New York in the Jazz Age
The Skyscraper Architects
The Art Deco Look
The Art of Advertising
Filtering Out and Down Across the Metropolis
The Fall and Rise of Art Deco
A Note on the Itineraries
Itinerary No. 1 F ROM B OWLING G REEN TO W ALL S TREET
Itinerary No. 2 C IVIC C ENTER AND T RI B E C A
Itinerary No. 3 F ROM M URRAY H ILL TO G RAMERCY P ARK
Itinerary No. 4 T HE G ARMENT D ISTRICT
Itinerary No. 5 F ORTY -S ECOND S TREET E AST TO W EST
Itinerary No. 6 F ROM B EEKMAN P LACE TO R OCKEFELLER C ENTER TO THE B RILL B UILDING
Itinerary No. 7 F ROM B LOOMINGDALE’S TO THE S OFIA A PARTMENTS
Color plates
Photographs by Randy Juster
Itinerary No. 8 U PPER W EST S IDE: C ENTRAL P ARK W EST
Itinerary No. 9 U PPER W EST S IDE: B ROADWAY AND R IVERSIDE D RIVE
Itinerary No. 10 U PPER E AST S IDE
Itinerary No. 11 W ASHINGTON H EIGHTS
Itinerary No. 12 T HE B RONX
Itinerary No. 13 B ROOKLYN
Itinerary No. 14 Q UEENS
Itinerary No. 15 S TATEN I SLAND
A Note on Sources
References
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Photographer Randy Juster contributed the exquisite color plates that capture the beauty of New York’s Deco treasures.
Legendary New York cartographer John Tauranac drew the maps that accompany each of the Manhattan itineraries.
Rob Schaffer walked the itineraries and drove with me on photo safaris through the Bronx and Brooklyn.
My wife, Susan Leicher, who has explored countless blocks of the city with me, has been urging me to write this book for thirty years.
Thanks to them all!
INTRODUCTION—ART DECO NEW YORK
Art Deco today is the fashionable name for all the various modernistic architectural styles, current between the two World Wars, that helped redefine New York City as the world’s modern metropolis. The style is readily recognizable, but its substance is sometimes hard to pin down. Its sources can be found in European decorative arts, but also in New York’s zoning regulations. Its practitioners range from socially prominent architects with sophisticated European training to immigrant builders who were largely self-taught. Its monuments include major Midtown skyscrapers and modest Bronx apartment houses. It is flowery and it is zigzag; it is intimate and it is monolithic; it is abstract and it is figurative; it is Roaring Twenties extravagant and it is Depression-era cheap. In all, Art Deco has become the collective name for all the brash, polychromatic, geometric, whiz-bang effects that could make a neighborhood diner or a multimillion-dollar skyscraper somehow suggest a skimpy dress, a rakish look, and a glass of champagne.
New York in the Jazz Age
Art Deco coalesced as a distinct manner of architecture at a time of massive growth in the great metropolis of the New World. New York emerged at the end of the First World War as one of the world’s great cities. Its population was increasing by the millions, spilling into new residential districts in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, while its dense Wall Street business district grew denser and spread to Midtown, which sprouted the city’s second skyline. As it grew, the city characterized in the nineteenth century as one of sunshine and shadow—of the very rich and the very poor—developed a massive middle-class population, and with it a mass culture made possible by the technical marvels of the new century. This was the Jazz Age, defined by one writer as a modern era of skyscrapers, the World Series, tabloids, radio, and the movies.
This new city—dense, modern, and a citadel of mass culture—found its built expression in skyscrapers, apartment houses, movie palaces, lunch counters, and bus terminals, all serving the anonymous millions of the metropolis, particularly those on their way up from immigrant poverty to mid