These were the buildings of the future: sleek, geometric, dramatic. With their cubic forms and zigzag designs, art deco buildings embraced the machine age. Yet many features of the style were drawn not from the Jetsons, but the Flintstones.
During the roaring twenties and the early thirties, jazzy Art Deco architecture was the rage. Like any style, it evolved from many sources. The austere shapes of the Bauhaus School and streamlined styling of modern technology combined with patterns and icons taken from the Far East, ancient Greece and Rome, Africa, India, and Mayan and Aztec cultures. But most of all, Art Deco expressed excitement over a stunning archeological find in Egypt.
Next: Echoes From the Tomb
