Editing Art Deco (section)

====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>