La ngu age level: Q

NEW YORK

El estilo Art Dco no es patrimono de los europeos.

De hecho, irrumpi en el continente americano ya en
los aos 20, cuando all se viva un boom econmico.
Nueva York conserva muchas muestras de este estilo.

ew York C i t y is home to
many amazing' things, not
least A r t Deco architecture.
Examples range 2 from the
world-famous Chrysler and
Empire State Buildings to less wellknown muris and interiors. Glen Leiner, executive director of the A r t Deco Society of New York, runs 3 tours designed
to promote awareness' o f this unique
style, but he is also actively involved i n
preservation campaigns.
The term A r t Deco wasn't i n fact
coined 5 u n t i l 1966, but i t referred to a
style that had come into existence i n
1925, at a Paris exhibition, the Exposition Internationale

desArts

Decoratifi

et

Industriis Modernes. The modern style

soon crossed the Atlantic, to the United
States, which was enjoying an economic boom i n the 1920s. That carne to a
dramatic halt with the Wall Street Crash
o f 1929 but, remarkably, says Leiner,
that didn't spell the end 4 of A r t Deco:
Glen
American

Leiner
accent):

(Standard
We,

of

course, had the Great Depression, 1929, that started

right here in New York, and the response
to the Great Depression in this country
consisted o f the New Deal. The New
Deal programs that were initiated under President Roosevelt, beginning i n
1933, and I'd like to think that that's a
very special American contribution to
the w o r l d of A r t Deco because during
34SPEAKUP

those years the government sponsored a

lot o f architecture projects: bridges,
highways, public housing 7 , schools,
hospitals, a whole wealth o f architecture 8 was sponsored and funded by the
government and it happened all over the
country, not just in New York or the big
cities. Civil works projects were initiated, we had waterworks', hydroelectric
dams 1 0 , harbors 1 1 , just a whole range o f
types o f projects were begun between
1933 and the start o f W o r l d W a r T w o
and that was all done under the scope12
of the New Deal government programs
and the aesthetics that were dictated
by those programs were distinctly
American. We had a lot o f buildings
that might look like the Novecento
architecture that you see in Miln and
might be similar to the French A r t
Deco, but it was very economical, very
rational, very clean.

THE EMPTY STATE BUILDING

The Empire State Building, for example, opened in 1931, but many of its
offices remained unoccupied until the
Second World War - so much so in
fact that it was nicknamed 13 'The
1 AMAZING: increble 2 TO RANGE:
variar 3 TO RUN: organizar U AWARENESS: consciencia 5 TO COIN: acuar 6 THAT DIDN'T
SPELL THE END: no signific el fin 7 PUBLIC HOUSING:
vivienda de proteccin oficial 8 A WHOLE WEALTH OF
ARCHITECTURE: un gran n m e r o de obras de arte
arquitectnicas 9 WATERWORKS: central depuradora
10 DAM: presa, dique 11 HARBOR: puerto 12 UNDER
THE SCOPE: bajo el m b i t o

GLOSSARY

EXERCISES
Listening Questions

1) Choose which of the options is corred.

A. The term Art Deco was first used in the
(1920s/1960s).
B. The Wall Street Crash was a (FATAL BLOW /
DRAWBACK) for the Art Deco movement.
c. The New Deal (HELPED / DIDN'T HELP] the Art

Deco style architectural programmes.

D. The government sponsored [ONLY PRVATE /
MAINLY PUBLIC] building projects.

E. Glen Leiner says that Art Deco architecture was (PURELY/ PARTICULARLY) American.

F. The Empire State Building remained

empty for around (FIFTEEN / THIRTY) years.
2] Place the topics into the order in which
they appear in the original report.
A. The Great Depression.
B.The Radio City Music Hall
c. The Art Deco Society of New York
D.The empty Empire State Building
E. President Roosevelt
F. Ralph Walker, the architect.
G.The Paris International Exhibition.
3) Are the following sentences true or false?
A. New York City has many Art Deco
buildings.

TRUE/FALSE

c. Art Deco buildings were mainly built on

America's east coast.
TRUE/FALSE
D. The Art Deco movement only lasted till
about 1939.

TRUE/FALSE

E. Donald Deskey designed many buildings

for the telephone company.
TRUE/FALSE

F. He was also one of America's great

industrial designers.
TRUE/FALSE
) Indcate which of these buildings does
not correspond to the architectural style.
A. ART DECO: Bauhaus Archive, Chrysler
Building, Christ the Redeemer
B. BAROQUE: ManchesterTown Hall,
St Paul's Cathedral, Piazza San Pietro
c. GOTHIC: Notre Dame, Burgos Cathedral,
Bellas Artes Palace
D. RENAISSANCE: St Peter's Baslica,
Cologne Cathedral, The Escorial
E. ROMANESQUE: Santiago Cathedral,
Winchester Cathedral, Toledo Cathedral

Answers

DA. 1960s, B. drawback, c. helped, D. mainly

public, E. particularly, F. fifteen
2) C, G, A, E, D, F, B
3) A. True, B. True, c. False, D. True,
E. False, F. True
4) A. Bauhaus Archive, B. Manchester Town
Hall, c. Bellas Artes Palace, D. Cologne
Cathedral, E. Toledo Cathedral
More exercises on CD

Park Avenue (above, left)

This sculpted mural is to be found on
a building on one of Manhattan's most
exclusive streets. In fact, many of
New York's poorer reas like Harlem
have plenty of examples of Art Deco
architecture. This is because property
developers were not interested in the
rea and therefore left it alone.

TRUE/FALSE

B.Art Deco coincided first with an economic

upturn in the USA.

MORE ART DE

42,

East 39th Street

(above, right) is one of many New

York office buildings with decorative
facades in this style. Remarkably, the
Art Deco boom took place during the
Great Depression.
Hirsch Towers (right)
are in nearby Port Elizabeth, Ne
Jersey. This former office block i
now a residential building.

The

E m p t y State B u i l d i n g ' . A r t Deco eff e c t i v e l y carne t o an e n d w i t h t h e

advent o f the war, b u t t h e
buildings are still standing.
I n c o n c l u s i n , we asked
Leiner to ame the most i m portant A r t Deco architects:
Glen Leiner: Ralph Walker is
a great American architect who
did many, many, many buildings for the telephone company and, because the telephone
company was all over the country 1 ', his
architecture appears i n many, many
cities and these are great, innovative,
brave 1 5 , courageous works of architecture using materials like brick 1 6 and

bronze and glass in innovative ways that

had not previously ever been done. So
he's one of my hroes.
Donald Deskey was a great
designer. H e created Radio
City Music Hall at Rockefeller
Center. He not only designed
the interior space, but he also
designed all o f the furnishings 17 that went into the space
and he was an industrial designer of that time 1 8 , and one
of the great industrial designers i n America, so he's very important.
13 TO NICKNAME: apodar 14 ALL
OVER THE COUNTRY: por todo el pas
15 BRAVE: valiente 16 BRICK: ladrillo 17 FURNISHINGS:
mobiliario, accesorios 18 TIME: p o c a

GLOSSARY