| Title |
Moderne Style of the 1920s and '30s: Architect's Foray into the Mass Architectural Market |
| Keywords |
Moderne Style ; Art Deco ; Mass Architectural Market ; Architectural Institution ; Professionalism ; 1930s ; Remodelling |
| Abstract |
A popular trend of the mid-1920s' design market, Moderne Style - casually known by an umbrella term, Art Deco - is characterized by superficial decorative features that deviate from the aesthetic principles set by the canon of Modernism, and is thus often a neglected subject in the historiography of modern architecture. However, placed in the context of its socio-cultural background in which the institutional establishment of American architecture was seeking reformation, Moderne Style opens up a richer field for analyses. A key feature of urban culture in the 1920s as it was applied to skyscrapers and various domestic products of the burgeoning market, Moderne Style expanded its national influence during the Great Depression - contrary to the presumption that stylistic concerns were a nonissue under economic constraints - via renovation of local main street commercial facilities under the New Deal's "Modernize Main Street" program. Technically and graphically adaptable to remodelling, Modern Style was a multifaceted answer to the era's social, political, economic, and professional need to create a mass market beyond social boundaries such as class and region. It not only functioned as a vehicle through which architects expanded their clients and areas of service in the mass market, but was also as effective a visual, public manifestation of institutional reform as neoclassicism had been in the previous Beaux-Arts era. |