On Mon, 3 Jan 2005, William H. Magill wrote: > On 03 Jan, 2005, at 10:51, Dubin, Elisabeth wrote: > > When one comes toward West Philadelphia over the Schuylkill, there > > are three salient things to look at as one crosses the bridge: the > > triumvirate of art deco buildings comprised by the post office, the > > train station, and the old convention hall. There will soon be a > > fourth - the Cira Center. > > What on earth is Art Deco about 30th Street Station? (Other than the > construction period.) > > Greek Revival, I might buy, but Art Deco? Even the interior is more > WPA than Art Deco, the exception being the massive chandeliers. There's > a great image of 30th Street Station here: > http://www.chesco.com/~apu/prr/prr_30.html > > Various descriptions of the structure describe it as evolving from the > "neo-classical" popular when the building was started to the Beaux-Arts > when it was completed, but nobody > calls it Art Deco. > > For that matter, I'd have to look again at the Civic Center and > Municipal Auditorium buildings ... I don't recall any feature that says > to me "Art Deco," other than "when" they were built. (Again, excepting > some of the interior lighting fixtures.) > > The same for the Post Office building -- it is clearly "Government > Monument" in style; yeah the interior lighting fixtures and elevators > are probably technically Art Deco, but even they are obscured by the > massive granite and marble expanses between them. The 30th Street Post > Office doesn't even have as much style as does the 8th and Market Post > Office. > > I don't think any of the three remind me of Art Deco half as much as > the old WPEN or KYW Studios (now Temple U) in Center City. > > And yes, the lines of Cira Centre evoke Art Deco streamlining, but > again, those have more in common with WPEN and the old KYW studios than > with either the train station or post office, except for size. I can't > help but wonder what the Building's architects would think of their > design being called "Art Deco."
Art Deco is a very slippery label and can encompass quite a wide variety of styles, as well as flowing out of Art Nouveau and into Art Moderne. Some peg it's timeline as beginning with the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes (say that 10 times real fast), but I've also seen a 1904 train station declared to be one of the first Art Deco buildings. And of course there were varying cultural manisfestations of Art Deco around the world, French (the Boyd Theatre's interior in considered French Art Deco), American and another dialect in the Southwest US for instance. I tend toward the wider view of what is Art Deco (I know it when I see it). I think that Bevis Hillier, the writer most often credited for coining (or at least popularizing) 'Art Deco,' has also expanded his ideas of what it includes in his later books. BTW, the Miami Design Preservation League's Annual Art Deco Weekend is coming up Jan 14-16 along South Beach. I was down there 3 years ago during a January heat wave, with temps in the 80s every day, but SoBe is a Mecca of Deco anytime (I hope to get back down there this winter). http://mdpl.org/weekend.html Cheers, Jayfar -- PhilaDeco.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://PhilaDeco.com AIM: PhilaDeco Committee to Save Convention Hall fax bank http://www.hallwatch.org/faxbank/conventionhall/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
