Tag: Streamline Moderne

Category: Architectural variety of Moderne

STREAMLINED MODERNE ARCHITECTURE

Streamlined Moderne architecture was an extrapolation of two design idioms that originated in Europe during the early twentieth century (the Art Deco and the International styles) that also reflected American fascination with automobiles and speed. Art Deco's influence in America began around 1925, following the Paris exhibition L'Exposision Internationale des Art Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes. Exposed to this novel approach to design, American designers transformed curvilinear decorative motifs into rectilinear zigzags, sunburst and angular designs that they applied to everything from buildings to cars, appliances, fabrics, and other products. With the onset of the Great Depression, the American penchant for whimsical Art Deco styling waned and more-subdued, functional, Moderne styling gained favor.

Moderne architecture was strongly influenced by the European International Style, which called for the elimination of waste and promoted industrialization and efficiency. Developed in Europe during the 1920s, the International Style embraced functionalism and rejected the applied ornament of nineteenth-century revival styles and of Art Deco design. Its no-nonsense philosophy espoused geometric regularity and straight lines, asymmetry, horizontal massing, horizontal bands of window s, and flat roofs. Made famous by European architects such as Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier), elements of International Style design first appeared in the United States during the late 1930s.

In the United States, Moderne design first came to widespread public attention during the Chicago Century of Progress World's Fair in 1933, just as the American public had become enamored with the grand vision of classical design provided by the World's Columbian Ex position, staged in Chicago forty years earlier. Historically-influenced revival styles dominated American architecture during the first quarter of the twentieth century. The Moderne buildings constructed for the Century of Progress World's Fair were new and bold and stood in stark contrast to the buildings most Americans saw in their hometowns. Like the Moderne buildings at the Fair, the Dairy Building was a bold design for its time and place. The low, blond brick building with banded glass block windows stood out from the traditional red brick commercial and industrial buildings that were typically built in this part of Kansas City during the early twentieth century.

As a variety of Moderne design, the Streamlined Moderne attempted to replicate in buildings the aerodynamic designs of automobiles that were popular at the time. In the 1930s and 40s, as a symbol of the modern industrial era and of the automobile age, streamlined architecture expressed the constantly expanding role of the automobile in American life. Buildings with low- slung forms, curved corners, and strong horizontal designs, such as that of the Dairy Building, expressed not only movement and speed, but forward thinking ideas. Industrial leaders were particularly quick to adopt the efficiency and simplicity of Streamlined Moderne architectural trends. As the Dairy Building demonstrates, the simple designs and functional plans translated into plants that were cost-effective to construct and efficient to operate.

Usually constructed of brick or stucco, Streamlined Moderne buildings had horizontal massing and rounded streamlined forms. Designers removed all ornament, leaving buildings with clean, uncluttered facades, while a simple form reflected an efficient interior plan. Abundant fenestration often utilized multi-light industrial steel sashes or glass blocks. Besides their aesthetic appeal, glass block windows provided translucence without visibility, light with little heat transmission, effective sound insulation, and low maintenance costs. Their low heat transmission, in particular, made glass blocks ideal for buildings designed with central air conditioning systems. - NRHP, 15 June 2008

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Places

Place	Type	AsNotedIn	Locale
Place	Type	AsNotedIn	Locale
Bozeman Sheet Metal Works		NRHP	Bozeman
Litening Gas		NRHP	Bozeman
Lenoir County Courthouse		NRHP	Kinston
H J Bartenbach House		NRHP	Grand Island
Puget Sound Radio Station Historic District		NRHP	Bremerton
Copeland and Tracht Service Station		NRHP	Phoenix
Walgreen Drug Store		NRHP	Miami, Fl
Huron Harbor Light			Huron
Conneaut Harbor West Breakwater Light		NRHP	Conneaut
Rincon Annex		NRHP	San Francisco
Orinda Theatre and American Trust Bank Building		PRHP	Orinda
Pan-Pacific Auditorium			Los Angeles
Shell Gas Station		NRHP	La Grange
Esslinger Building		NRHP	San Juan Capistrano, CA
San Diego Civic Center		NRHP	San Diego, CA
Tower Theatre		NRHP	Fresno
Carver Theatre		NRHP	Columbia, SC
Blue Plate Building		NRHP	New Orleans
WFIL Studio		NRHP	Philadelphia, PA
David Park House		NRHP	Bemidji
Aines Farm Dairy Building		NRHP	Kansas City, MO