Streamline Moderne

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Streamline Moderne
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Years active1930s–1940s
LocationInternational

Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design, it was used in railroad locomotives, telephones, buses, appliances, and other devices to give the impression of sleekness and modernity.[1]

In France, it was called the Script error: No such module "Lang"., or "ocean liner style", and was influenced by the design of the luxury ocean liner SS Normandie, launched in 1932.

Influences and origins

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As the Great Depression of the 1930s progressed, Americans saw a new architectural style emerge as industrial designers stripped Art Deco of its ornament in favor of an aerodynamically-inspired pure-line concept. Some argue that the origin can be traced back to the "Century of Progress" Chicago World's fair in 1933–1934.[2] The new streamlined look that emerged conveyed simplicity, motion, and speed, much derived from—and influencing—advanced forms of modern transportation.[3]

It had various roots. Its cylindrical forms and long horizontal windowing may have been influenced by the New Objectivity artists—a movement connected to the German Werkbund—and by Futurist architecture of the early 20th century. Examples of this style include the 1923 Mossehaus, the reconstruction of the corner of a Berlin office building in 1923 by Erich Mendelsohn and Richard Neutra. The Streamline Moderne was sometimes a reflection of the austere economic times; sharp angles were replaced with simple, aerodynamic curves, and ornament was replaced with smooth concrete and glass.

The style was the first to incorporate electric light into architectural structure. In the first-class dining room of the SS Normandie, fitted out 1933–1935, 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.

Architecture

Template:Refimprove Streamline Moderne appeared most overtly in buildings related to transportation and movement, such as bus and train stations, airport terminals, roadside cafes, and port buildings.[4] It had characteristics common with modern architecture, including a horizontal orientation, rounded corners, the use of glass brick walls or porthole windows, flat roofs, chrome-plated hardware, and horizontal grooves or lines in the walls. Structures were frequently white or in subdued pastel colors.

An example of this style is the Aquatic Park Bathhouse in the Aquatic Park Historic District, in San Francisco. Built beginning in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration, it features the distinctive horizontal lines, classic rounded corners railing and windows of the style, resembling the elements of ship. The interior preserves much of the original decoration and detail, including murals by artist and color theoretician Hilaire Hiler. The architects were William Mooser Jr. and William Mooser III. It is now the administrative center of Aquatic Park Historic District.[5]

The Normandie Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which opened during 1942, is built in the stylized shape of the ocean liner SS Normandie, and displays the ship's original sign. The Sterling Streamliner Diners in New England were diners designed like streamlined trains.

Another example is Hollywood, California's Julian Medical Building, which has been described as a "landmark",[6] "an architectural masterpiece",[7] and "one of the crowning achievements of Streamline Moderne."[8] The building's distinctive features include a rounded Moderne corner, windswept tower, and pylon-separated horizontally-reinforced windows.[6][9]

Streamline Moderne residences are less common than streamline commercial buildings. The Lydecker House in Los Angeles, built by Howard Lydecker, is one example.[citation needed] In tract development, elements of the style were sometimes used as a variation in postwar row housing in San Francisco's Sunset District.

Paquebot style

In France, the style was called Paquebot, meaning ocean liner. The French version was inspired by the launch of the premier transatlantic liner Normandie in 1935, which featured an Art Deco dining room with columns of Lalique crystal. Buildings using variants of the style appeared in Belgium and in Paris, notably in a building at 3 boulevard Victor in the 15th arrondissement, by the architect Pierre Patout. He was one of the founders of the Art Deco style. He designed the entrance to the Pavilion of a Collector at the 1925 Exposition of Decorative Arts, the birthplace of the style. He was also the designer of the interiors of three ocean liners, the Ile-de-France (1926), the L'Atlantique (1930), and the Normandie (1935).[10] Patout's building on Avenue Victor lacked the curving lines of the American version of the style, but it had a narrow "bow" at one end, where the site was narrow, long balconies like the decks of a ship, and a row of projections like smokestacks on the roof. Another 1935 Paris apartment building at 1 Avenue Paul Doumer in the 16th arrondissement had a series of terraces modelled after the decks of an ocean liner.[11]

The Flagey Building was built on the Place Eugène Flagey in Ixelles (Brussels), Belgium, in 1938, in the paquebot style,[12] and has been nicknamed "Packet Boat"[13] or "paquebot".[14] It was designed by Joseph Diongre [fr], and selected as the winning design in an architectural competition[15] to create a building to house the former headquarters of the Belgian National Institute of Radio Broadcasting (INR/NIR).[16] The building was extensively renovated, and in 2002, it reopened as a cultural centre known as Le Flagey.[15][17]

Automobiles

Script error: No such module "labelled list hatnote". The defining event for streamline moderne design in the United States was the 1933–34 Chicago World's Fair, which introduced the style to the general public. The new automobiles adapted the smooth lines of ocean liners and airships, giving the impression of efficiency, dynamism, and speed. The grills and windshields tilted backwards, cars sat lower and wider, and featured smooth curves and horizontal speed lines. Examples include the 1934 Chrysler Airflow and the 1934 Studebaker Land Cruiser. The cars also featured new materials, including bakelite plastic, formica, Vitrolight opaque glass, stainless steel, and enamel, which gave the appearance of newness and sleekness.[18]

Other later examples include the 1950 Nash Ambassador "Airflyte" sedan with its distinctive low fender lines, as well as Hudson's postwar cars, such as the Commodore,[19] that "were distinctive streamliners—ponderous, massive automobiles with a style all their own".[20]

Planes, boats and trains

Script error: No such module "labelled list hatnote". Streamlining became a widespread design practice for aircraft, railroad locomotives, and ships.

Industrial design

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Streamline style industrial design can be contrasted with functionalism, which represent a contrasting modernistic school. A leading design style in Europe at the same time, functionalism sought simple designs to lower the production costs, making them affordable to the large European working class.[21]

Other notable examples

File:1-й жилой дом врача 1.jpg
Doctor's Building, Kyiv, Ukraine, 1928
File:Casa e jardins de Serralves 5.jpg
Serralves House, Porto, Portugal, 1931–1944
File:Express Building Manchester.jpg
Daily Express Building, Manchester, UK, 1939
File:Gdynia- Dom Żeglarza Polskiego (4).JPG
Gdynia Maritime University, Poland, 1937
File:Club Moderne, Anaconda, Montana.jpg
Club Moderne, Anaconda, Montana, US
File:Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier.jpg
Star Ferry Pier, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
File:Clock Tower, Star Ferry Pier in Central.jpg
Former Star Ferry Pier, Central, Hong Kong, now demolished
File:Knapps Building.jpg
J. W. Knapp Company Building (1937), Lansing, Michigan
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Hamilton Hydro-Electric System Building (1935), Hamilton, Ontario

In motion pictures

See also

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."A true example of Streamline Moderne". Times of Malta. 6 September 2012. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Streamline Moderne: An Era of Curves, Speed, and Modernity". Parametric Architecture. 26 December 2025.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Wall, John (2018). Streamliner: Raymond Loewy and Image-Making in the Age of American Industrial Design (Illustrated ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-2574-0.
  4. ^ Bridge, Nicole. Architecture 101, Simon & Schuster, New York, (2015), page 203.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."National Park Service: Architecture in the Parks (Aquatic Park)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2025-04-03.
  6. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District". United States Department of the Interior - National Park Service. April 4, 1985.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Julian Medical Building". socallandmarks.com. March 12, 2023.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Winter, Robert (2009). An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles. Gibbs Smith. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-4236-0893-6.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Owl Drug/Julian Medical - Hollywood Historic Site". Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved July 4, 2024.
  10. ^ Oudin, Bernard. Dictionnaire des Architectes, Sechiers, Paris, (1994), (in French), page 372.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Texier, Simon (2012), Paris Panorama of Architecture, Parigramme, p. 142, ISBN 9782840966678
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Le Flagey - Découvrez Bruxelles en musique". Bruxelles ma Belle (in français). 16 November 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."New course for packet boat". SVR-Architects. 14 July 2002. Archived from the original on 8 January 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Februari 2017: Flagey architectuurwandeling en pianoconcert". Antwerpencultuurstad (in Nederlands). 17 February 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  15. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Flagey Building". Flagey. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Flagey". jazz.brussels. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Flagey N.V." SVR-Architects. 17 October 2002. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  18. ^ McCourt, Mark, "When Art Deco is Really Streamline Moderne", Hemmings Daily, 29 May 2014
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."1948 Hudson Models – Tech Pages Article". Auto History Preservation Society. Archived from the original on July 11, 2021. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Reed, Robert C. (1975). The Streamline Era. San Marino, California: Golden West Books. ISBN 0-87095-053-3.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Nickelsen, Trine (15 June 2010). "Aluminium – en kulturhistorie" (in norsk). Apollon. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  22. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Bettsky, Aaron (15 July 1993). "A Hollywood Ending for Those Who Take This Elevator to the Top". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Bos, Sascha (16 July 2014). "Historic 1938 Building Could Complicate Massive WeHo Development". LA Weekly. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Lankershim Arts Center". City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Retrieved September 18, 2024.

Bibliography

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