Editing Art Deco (section)

===Building types===
====Skyscrapers====
<gallery mode="packed" heights="220px">
File:NYC - American Radiator Building.jpg|The [[American Radiator Building]] in [[New York City]] by [[Raymond Hood]] (1924)
File:Carbide & Carbon Building, Chicago in May 2016.jpg|[[Carbide & Carbon Building]] in [[Chicago]], Illinois, by [[Burnham Brothers]] (1929)
File:Chrysler Building by David Shankbone Retouched.jpg|[[Chrysler Building]] in New York City by [[William Van Alen]] (1930)
File:Times Square Building, Rochester, New York.jpg|[[Times Square Building (Rochester)|The Times Square Building]] in [[Rochester, New York|Rochester, NY]] by [[Ralph Thomas Walker]] (1930)
File:National Newark Building + Eleven 80.jpg|[[Eleven 80|The Lefcourt Building]] (1930) by [[Grad Associates|Frank Grad]] and [[National Newark Building|the National Newark Building]] by [[John H. & Wilson C. Ely]] (1933) in [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark, NJ]]
File:Empire State Building (aerial view).jpg|[[Empire State Building]] in New York City by [[Shreve, Lamb & Harmon]] (1931)
File:Pittsburgh-gulf-tower-2007.jpg|[[Gulf Tower]] in [[Pittsburgh]], Pennsylvania, by [[Trowbridge & Livingston]] and [[Edward Mellon]] (1932)
File:570 Lexington Avenue2.JPG|Crown of the [[General Electric Building]] (also known as 570 Lexington Avenue) in New York City by [[Cross & Cross]] (1933)
File:GE Building by David Shankbone.JPG|[[30 Rockefeller Plaza]], now the Comcast Building, in New York City by [[Raymond Hood]] (1933)
</gallery>

American skyscrapers marked the summit of the Art Deco style; they became the tallest and most recognizable modern buildings in the world, designed to show the prestige of their builders through height, shape, their color, and dramatic illumination at night.<ref>John Burchard and Albert Bush Brown, ''The Architecture of America'' (1966), Atlantic, Little and Brown, page 277</ref> The [[American Radiator Building]] by [[Raymond Hood]] (1924) combined Gothic and Deco modern elements in the design of the building. Black brick on the frontage of the building (symbolizing coal) was selected to give an idea of solidity and to give the building a solid mass. Other parts of the façade were covered in gold bricks (symbolizing fire), and the entry was decorated with marble and black mirrors. Another early Art Deco skyscraper was Detroit's [[Guardian Building]], which opened in 1929. Designed by modernist [[Wirt C. Rowland]], the building was the first to employ stainless steel as a decorative element, and the extensive use of colored designs in place of traditional ornaments.

New York City's skyline was radically changed by the [[Chrysler Building]] in Manhattan (completed in 1930), designed by [[William Van Alen]]. It was a giant seventy-seven-floor tall advertisement for Chrysler automobiles. The top was crowned by a stainless steel spire, and was ornamented by deco "gargoyles" in the form of stainless steel radiator cap decorations. The base of the tower, thirty-three stories above the street, was decorated with colorful Art Deco friezes, and the lobby was decorated with Art Deco symbols and images expressing modernity.{{Sfn|Benton|Benton|Wood|2003|pages=249–258}}

The Chrysler Building was soon surpassed in height by the [[Empire State Building]] by [[William F. Lamb]] (1931), in a slightly less lavish Deco style and the [[RCA Building]] (now 30 Rockefeller Plaza) by Raymond Hood (1933) which together completely changed New York City's skyline. The tops of the buildings were decorated with Art Deco crowns and spires covered with stainless steel, and, in the case of the Chrysler building, with Art Deco gargoyles modeled after radiator ornaments, while the entrances and lobbies were lavishly decorated with Art Deco sculpture, ceramics, and design. Similar buildings, though not quite as tall, soon appeared in Chicago and other large American cities. Rockefeller Center added a new design element: several tall buildings grouped around an open plaza, with a fountain in the middle.{{Sfn|Morel|2012|pages=125–30}}

Across the [[Hudson River]], Art Deco style skyscrapers [[List of Art Deco architecture in New Jersey|were constructed]] in [[Newark, New Jersey]] in the '20s and '30s, namely the [[New Jersey Bell Headquarters Building|New Jersey Bell Headquarters]] (completed in 1929), designed by [[Ralph Thomas Walker]]; the [[Eleven 80|Lefcourt Building]] (completed in 1930), designed by [[Grad Associates|Frank Grad]]; and the [[National Newark Building]] (completed in 1933), designed by [[John H. & Wilson C. Ely]]. [[John Cotton Dana]], head of the [[Newark Public Library]] during this period, remarked contemporaneously that these skyscrapers transformed Newark from a "huge, uncouth and unthinking industrial Frankenstein monster into a place of refinement."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Di Ionna |first1=Mark |title=Art Deco Buildings Turned Newark from Frankenstein Monster to Place of Refinement |url=https://www.tapinto.net/towns/berkeley-heights/articles/art-deco-buildings-turned-newark-from-frankenstein-monster-to-place-of-refinement |website=tapinto.net |publisher=Tapinto |access-date=3 February 2025 |date=July 2, 2019}}</ref>

===="Cathedrals of Commerce"====
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
File:Interior of Fisher Building, Detroit.JPG|The [[Fisher Building]] in [[Detroit]], Michigan, by [[Joseph Nathaniel French]] (1928)
File:Detroit December 2015 30 (Guardian Building).jpg|Lower lobby of the [[Guardian Building]] in Detroit by [[Wirt Rowland]] (1929)
File:450 Sutter St. lobby 2.JPG|Lobby of [[450 Sutter Street]] in [[San Francisco]], California, by [[Timothy Pflueger]] (1929)
File:Chrysler Building Lobby.jpg|Lobby of the [[Chrysler Building]] in [[New York City]], by [[William Van Alen]] (1930)
File:Chrysler building door detail crown.jpg|Interior door in the Chrysler Building (1930)
File:Chandelier, Carew Tower.jpg|Ceiling and chandelier detail on the lobby of the [[Carew Tower]] in [[Cincinnati]], Ohio, by [[Walter W. Ahlschlager]] (1930)
File:Haltusch.jpg|Foyer of the [[Tuschinski Theatre]] in [[Amsterdam]] by Hijman Louis de Jong (1921)
</gallery>

The grand showcases of American Art Deco interior design were the lobbies of government buildings, theaters, and particularly office buildings. Interiors were extremely colorful and dynamic, combining sculpture, murals, and ornate geometric design in marble, glass, ceramics and stainless steel. An early example was the [[Fisher Building]] in Detroit, by [[Joseph Nathaniel French]]; the lobby was highly decorated with sculpture and ceramics. The [[Guardian Building]] (originally the Union Trust Building) in Detroit, by [[Wirt Rowland]] (1929), decorated with red and black marble and brightly colored ceramics, highlighted by highly polished steel elevator doors and counters. The sculptural decoration installed in the walls illustrated the virtues of industry and saving; the building was immediately termed the "Cathedral of Commerce". The Medical and Dental Building called [[450 Sutter Street]] in San Francisco by [[Timothy Pflueger]] was inspired by [[Maya civilization|Mayan]] architecture, in a highly stylized form; it used pyramid shapes, and the interior walls were covered with highly stylized rows of hieroglyphs.{{Sfn|Duncan|1988|pages=198–200}}

In France, the best example of an Art Deco interior during this period was the [[Palais de la Porte Dorée]] (1931) by [[Albert Laprade]], [[Léon Jaussely]] and [[Léon Bazin]]. The building (now the National Museum of Immigration, with an aquarium in the basement) was built for the [[Paris Colonial Exposition]] of 1931, to celebrate the people and products of French colonies. The exterior façade was entirely covered with sculpture, and the lobby created an Art Deco harmony with a wood parquet floor in a geometric pattern, a mural depicting the people of French colonies; and a harmonious composition of vertical doors and horizontal balconies.{{Sfn|Duncan|1988|pages=198–200}}

====Movie palaces====
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
File:Pathe Tuschinski.jpg|[[Tuschinski Theatre]] in [[Amsterdam]] by Hijman Louis de Jong and Willem Kromhout (1921)
File:Graumanegyptian-opening1922.jpg|[[Grauman's Egyptian Theatre]] in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood (Los Angeles)]], California, by [[Meyer & Holler]] (1922)
File:Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California LCCN2013635154.tif|Four-story high grand lobby of the [[Paramount Theatre (Oakland, California)|Paramount Theatre]] in [[Oakland]], California, by [[Timothy Pflueger]] (1932)
File:Radio City Music Hall 3051638324 4a385c5623.jpg|Auditorium and stage of [[Radio City Music Hall]] in [[New York City]] by [[Edward Durell Stone]] and [[Donald Deskey]] (1932)
File:Facade Rex.jpg|[[Grand Rex]] in [[Paris]] by Auguste Bluysen, [[John Eberson]], Henri-Édouard Navarre and [[Maurice Dufrêne]] (1932)
File:The Paramount, Shanghai.JPG|The [[Paramount (Shanghai)|Paramount]] in [[Shanghai]], China, by S. J. Young (1933)
File:Gaumont State Cinema Entrance.jpg|[[Gaumont State Cinema]] in [[London]] by [[George Coles (architect)|George Coles]] (1937)
</gallery>

Many of the best surviving examples of Art Deco are cinemas built in the 1920s and 1930s. The Art Deco period coincided with the conversion of silent films to sound, and movie companies built large display destinations in major cities to capture the huge audience that came to see movies. Movie palaces in the 1920s often combined exotic themes with Art Deco style; [[Grauman's Egyptian Theatre]] in Hollywood (1922) was inspired by ancient Egyptian tombs and [[pyramid]]s, while the [[Fox Theater (Bakersfield, California)|Fox Theater]] in Bakersfield, California attached a tower in California Mission style to an Art Deco Hall. The largest of all is [[Radio City Music Hall]] in New York City, which opened in 1932. Originally designed as theatrical performance space, it quickly transformed into a cinema, which could seat 6,015 customers. The interior design by [[Donald Deskey]] used glass, aluminum, chrome, and leather to create a visual escape from reality. The [[Paramount Theatre (Oakland, California)|Paramount Theatre]] in Oakland, California, by Timothy Pflueger, had a colorful ceramic façade, a lobby four stories high, and separate Art Deco smoking rooms for gentlemen and ladies. Similar grand palaces appeared in Europe. The [[Grand Rex]] in Paris (1932), with its imposing tower, was the largest cinema in Europe after the 6,000 seats of the [[Gaumont-Palace]] (1931–1973). The [[Gaumont State Cinema]] in London (1937) had a tower modelled on the Empire State building, covered with cream ceramic tiles and an interior in an Art Deco-Italian Renaissance style. The [[Paramount (Shanghai)|Paramount]] Theatre in Shanghai, China (1933) was originally built as a dance hall called ''The gate of 100 pleasures''; it was converted to a cinema after the Communist Revolution in 1949, and now is a ballroom and disco. In the 1930s Italian architects built a small movie palace, the Cinema Impero, in [[Asmara]] in what is now Eritrea. Today, many of the movie theatres have been subdivided into multiplexes, but others have been restored and are used as cultural centres in their communities.{{Sfn|Duncan|1988|pages=197–199}}