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Streamline Moderne

{{short description|Late type of the Art Deco architecture and design}}

{{Infobox art movement

| name = Streamline Moderne

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| yearsactive = 1930s–1940s

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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.{{cite news |title=A true example of Streamline Moderne |url= http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120906/environment/A-true-example-of-Streamline-Moderne.435799 |date=6 September 2012 |work=Times of Malta |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160401124136/http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120906/environment/A-true-example-of-Streamline-Moderne.435799 |archive-date=1 April 2016}}

In France, it was called the style paquebot, 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 aspect of Art Deco, i.e., streamlining, a concept first conceived by industrial designers who stripped Art Deco design of its ornament in favor of the aerodynamic pure-line concept of motion and speed developed from scientific thinking. The cylindrical forms and long horizontal windowing in architecture may also 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 1933–35, 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.

Architecture

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Streamline Moderne appeared most often in buildings related to transportation and movement, such as bus and train stations, airport terminals, roadside cafes, and port buildings.Bridge, Nicole. Architecture 101, Simon & Schuster, New York, (2015), page 203. 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. They 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.{{Cite web |title=National Park Service: Architecture in the Parks (Aquatic Park) |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/harrison/harrison29.htm |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=www.nps.gov}}

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",{{Cite web |title=Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/236d3254-47ee-4b31-9045-c2999cc465f2/ |publisher=United States Department of the Interior - National Park Service |date=April 4, 1985 |language=en-US}} "an architectural masterpiece",{{Cite web |title=Julian Medical Building |url=https://socallandmarks.com/index.php/2023/03/12/julian-medical-building/ |website=socallandmarks.com |date=March 12, 2023 |language=en-US}} and "one of the crowning achievements of Streamline Moderne."{{Cite book |last=Winter |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWl29hn0C9gC |title=An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles |date=2009 |publisher=Gibbs Smith |isbn=978-1-4236-0893-6 |page=181 |language=en}} The building's distinctive features include a rounded Moderne corner, windswept tower, and pylon-separated horizontally-reinforced windows.{{Cite web |title=Owl Drug/Julian Medical - Hollywood Historic Site|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=231861 |publisher=Hollywood Chamber of Commerce |accessdate=July 4, 2024 |language=en-US}}

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 sometimes used as a variation in postwar row housing in San Francisco's Sunset District.

File:Julian medical bldg.jpg|Julian Medical Building in Hollywood, California, by Morgan, Walls & Clements (1934)

File:Coca-Cola Building Los Angeles.jpg|Coca-Cola factory in Los Angeles by Robert V. Derrah (1936)

File:East Finchley Station - geograph.org.uk - 909900.jpg|East Finchley Tube station, London (1937)

File:Hecht warehouse washington dc.jpg|Hecht Company Warehouse in northeast Washington, D.C. (1937)

File:Pan-Pacific Auditorium entrance.jpg|Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, California (1935–1989)

File:LaGuardia MarineAirTerminal 1974.jpg|Marine Air Terminal of LaGuardia Airport, New York (1939)

File:Hotel Shangri-La Santa Monica.jpg|Hotel Shangri-La (1939), Santa Monica, California

File:Greyhound Station Columbia SC LOC 570829cu.jpg|Greyhound Bus Station, Columbia, South Carolina (1936–1939)

File:Union Pacific Station, Las Vegas, Nevada (74656).jpg|The Las Vegas Union Pacific Railroad station (mid-1930s, demolished 1971)

File:First Church of Deliverance 2.jpg|Streamline Moderne church, First Church of Deliverance, Chicago, Illinois, by Walter T. Bailey. (Opened 1939, façade towers added 1948)

File:Studio of National Broadcasting System, at night, Radio City, Hollywood, Calif (67295).jpg|Night image, NBC Hollywood Studios (also known as "Radio City Hollywood") at Sunset and Vine (1938)

File:Bluff Park Histric Photo circa 1960.jpg|Bluff Park Historic District, Long Beach, CA

Paquebot style

In France, the style was called Paquebot, meaning ocean liner. The French version was inspired by the launch of the ocean 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).Oudin, Bernard. Dictionnaire des Architectes, Sechiers, Paris, (1994), (in French), page 372. 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.{{citation | first = Simon | last = Texier | title = Paris Panorama of Architecture | publisher = Parigramme | date = 2012 | page = 142 | isbn = 9782840966678 }}

The Flagey Building was built on the Place Eugène Flagey in Ixelles (Brussels), Belgium, in 1938, in the paquebot style,{{cite web | title=Le Flagey - Découvrez Bruxelles en musique | website=Bruxelles ma Belle | date=16 November 2015 | url=https://www.bruxellesmabelle.net/lieux/le-flagey/ | language=fr | access-date=9 May 2021}} and has been nicknamed "Packet Boat"{{cite web | title=New course for packet boat | website=SVR-Architects | date=14 July 2002 | url=https://www.svr-architects.eu/new-course-for-packet-boat/?lang=en | access-date=9 May 2021 | archive-date=8 January 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220108101328/https://www.svr-architects.eu/new-course-for-packet-boat/?lang=en | url-status=dead }} or "paquebot".{{cite web | title=Februari 2017: Flagey architectuurwandeling en pianoconcert | website=Antwerpencultuurstad | date=17 February 2017 | url=https://www.antwerpencultuurstad.be/februari-2017-flagey-architectuurwandeling-en-pianoconcert/ | language=nl | access-date=9 May 2021}} It was designed by {{ill|Joseph Diongre|fr}}, and selected as the winning design in an architectural competition{{cite web | title=The Flagey Building | website=Flagey | url=https://www.flagey.be/en/page/3718-the-flagey-building | access-date=8 May 2021}} to create a building to house the former headquarters of the Belgian National Institute of Radio Broadcasting (INR/NIR).{{cite web | title=Flagey | website=jazz.brussels | url=https://jazz.brussels/en/hotspot/flagey | access-date=9 May 2021 | archive-date=9 May 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210509040149/https://jazz.brussels/en/hotspot/flagey | url-status=dead }} The building was extensively renovated, and in 2002, it reopened as a cultural centre known as Le Flagey.{{cite web | title=Flagey N.V. | website=SVR-Architects | date=17 October 2002 | url=https://www.svr-architects.eu/project/flagey-n-v/?lang=en | access-date=9 May 2021}}

File:SS Normandie (ship, 1935) interior.jpg|Main dining room of the ocean liner S.S. Normandie by Pierre Patout (1935)

File:Immeuble de Pierre Patout Bd Victor Paris XV.jpg|Paquebot building at 3 boulevard Victor, 15th arrondissement, Paris by Patout (1935)

File:Ancien Institut national de Radiodiffusion - vue d'ensemble.JPG|Flagey Building (or Radio House), Ixelles (Brussels), Belgium (1938)

Automobiles

{{further|Streamliner#Automobiles|topic=streamlined automobiles}}

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 they 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.McCourt, Mark, "When Art Deco is Really Streamline Moderne", Hemmings Daily, 29 May 2014

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,{{cite web |title=1948 Hudson Models – Tech Pages Article |url=http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/cgi-bin/pub9990262549620.cgi?itemid=9990480952247&action=viewad&categoryid=9900468971914 |website=Auto History Preservation Society |access-date=February 14, 2018 |archive-date=July 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711124113/http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/cgi-bin/pub9990262549620.cgi?itemid=9990480952247&action=viewad&categoryid=9900468971914 |url-status=dead }} that "were distinctive streamliners—ponderous, massive automobiles with a style all their own".{{Reed-Streamline era|p=278}}

File:Rumpler (31713119053).jpg|The Rumpler Tropfenwagen (1921) was designed by Edmund Rumpler, who was initially an aircraft designer

File:Sportovní vůz Supersport.gif|The 1931 WIKOV Supersport, Prostějov Moravia was one of the first produced truly aerodynamically designed automobiles.

File:1933_Pierce-Arrow_Silver_Arrow_V-12_(9513966700).jpg|The 1933 Pierce Silver Arrow

File:Tatra 77A dutch licence registration AM-44-01 pic10.JPG|The 1934 Tatra 77 was one of the first serial-produced truly aerodynamically designed automobiles.

File:1934ChryslerAirflow.jpg|1934 Chrysler Airflow

File:1934 Studebaker Commander Land Cruiser Sedan (4000265550).jpg|Studebaker Land Cruiser (1934)

Stout Scarab 2.jpg|Stout Scarab (1935) on display at Houston Fine Arts Museum

Bugatti Aérolithe AV.jpg|Bugatti Aérolithe (1936)

Cord 812 1937.jpg|1937 Cord Automobile

1938 Talbot Teardrop SS 150 (7412440580).jpg|Talbot Teardrop SS 150 (1938)

Schlörwagen without the Russian aircraft power unit.jpg|1939 Schlörwagen - Subsequent wind tunnel tests yielded a drag coefficient of 0.113

File:1939 Dodge TE32 table top (6333330869).jpg|1939 Dodge 'Job Rated' streamline model truck

File:1946 Chevrolet DP ½-ton truck, front left.jpg|1946 Chevrolet DP ½-ton 'Art Deco' pickup

File:T603 MockUp.jpg|1955 Tatra 603 The last prototype in Kopřivnice Moravia

Planes, boats and trains

{{Further|Streamliner#Ships|topic=streamlined ships and trains|Streamliner#Trains}}

Streamlining became a widespread design practice for aircraft, railroad locomotives, and ships.

File:Kalakala.jpg|MV Kalakala, the first streamlined ferry boat (1935)

Fliegender Hamburger 01.JPG|Hamburg Flyer (1932)

File:NS DE III in het grijs te Utrecht CS.jpg|Diesel III, the Netherlands (1934)

File:Dampflokomotive der Baureihe 05 Der neue Brockhaus 1938.jpg|DRG Class 05 (1935), world speed record for steam locomotives in 1936

File:Cleveland Mercury ticket New York Central 1938.JPG| Mercury locomotive designed by Henry Dreyfuss (1936)

File:6229 Duchess of Hamilton at the National Railway Museum.jpg|Duchess of Hamilton locomotive (1938)

File:PCC-Chicago-4.jpg|Chicago PCC car

File:M 290.002 Slovenská strela, Žleby zastávka – Žleby 02.jpg|1936 M 290.0 Slovenská Strela speed train, Czechoslovakia. Slovenská strela was manufactured by Tatra Kopřivnice in Moravia in 1936 for Czechoslovak State Railways.

Industrial design

Streamline style can be contrasted with functionalism, which was a leading design style in Europe at the same time. One reason for the simple designs in functionalism was to lower the production costs of the items, making them affordable to the large European working class.{{cite web|first=Trine |last=Nickelsen |title=Aluminium – en kulturhistorie |url= http://www.apollon.uio.no/artikler/2010/aluminium.html |date=15 June 2010|language=no |publisher=Apollon |access-date=17 February 2015}} Streamlining and functionalism represent two different schools in modernistic industrial design.

File:Ericsson bakelittelefon 1931.jpg|The first bakelite telephone (1931)

File:Philips 930.jpg|Philips Art Deco radio set (1931)

File:Lurelle Guild. Vacuum Cleaner, ca. 1937..jpg|Electrolux Vacuum cleaner (1937)

File:Toaster1.jpg|Streamlined toaster

File:Crosley radio.jpg|Streamlined Bakelite radio (1952)

Other notable examples

File:1-й жилой дом врача 1.jpg

File:Casa e jardins de Serralves 5.jpg

File:Express Building Manchester.jpg, UK, 1939]]

File:Gdynia- Dom Żeglarza Polskiego (4).JPG

File:Club Moderne, Anaconda, Montana.jpg in Anaconda, Montana]]

File:Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier.jpg, Hong Kong]]

File:Clock Tower, Star Ferry Pier in Central.jpg, Hong Kong, now demolished]]

File:Earls Court One - geograph.org.uk - 164611.jpg's Earls Court Exhibition Centre (1937), West Brompton, London approach, now demolished]]

File:Knapps Building.jpg

File:HamiltonHydroElectric.JPG

= In motion pictures =

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See also

References

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

  • {{cite book|last=Texier|first=Simon|title=Paris- Panorama de l'architecture|year=2012|publisher=Parigramme|ISBN=978-2-84096-667-8}}
  • {{cite book|last=Oudin|first=Bernard|title=Dictionnaire des Architectes|year=1994|publisher=Seghers|ISBN=2-232-10398-6}}

{{History of architecture}}

{{Modern architecture}}

{{Architecture in the United States}}

Category:Streamliners

Streamline Moderne

Category:20th-century architectural styles

Category:Design languages