THE BEAUX-ARTS STYLE/ART DECO/ARTS

AND CRAFT MOVEMENT

 Characteristics of Beaux-Arts Architecture
 Beaux-Arts buildings are massive, usually constructed with stone, with a
symmetrical façade or front, and flat or low-pitched roofs.
 The façade of Beaux-Arts buildings typically features adornment
reminiscent of Greek and Roman Architecture such as balustrades, or
vertical posts, on balconies (a porch that protrudes from a building), held
up by large decorative pillars called columns, arched windows and grand
arched entryways topped with triangular gables called pediments.
 Building details and decorations are elaborate and include 3-dimensional
carved panels called bas-relief and rounded convex surfaces
called cartouches. These are typically surrounded by garlands or vines,
decorative swags (garlands raised up in the middle) and medallions or
medal-like ornamentation.
 Interiors typically have grand stairways and polished marble floors.
Arched doorways lead to large rooms and decorations inside the
buildings are as ornate as those on the exterior. Government buildings
built in the Beaux-Arts style typically have high, vaulted ceilings and
central domes.
Interiors typically have grand stairways and polished marble floors. Arched
doorways lead to large rooms and decorations inside the buildings are as
ornate as those on the exterior. Government buildings built in the Beaux-
Arts style typically have high, vaulted ceilings and central domes.
San Francisco Opera House
The San Francisco Opera House was the last Beaux-Arts building constructed in the United
States. It was built as a war memorial to honor those who served in WWI. The exterior features
a rusticated first floor (note the roughhewn stones), columns and archways on the second floor
balcony and a low-pitched roof.

Grand Central Terminal, New York

Grand Central Terminal in New York was
completed in 1913. Its exterior features arched
windows flanked by paired columns. Ornate
detailing marks the Beaux-Arts style. The interior
features grand staircases and vaulted ceilings.
CHARACTERISTICS:
 Smooth wall Surface

 Sharped edge linear appearance

 Stylized decorative elements using geometrical forms, zigzags, chevrons

 Low relief decorative panels

 Stepped or set back front façade

 Strips of windows with decorative spandrels

 Reeding and fluting around doors and windows

COMMON BUILDING TYPES:

 Theatres

 Commercial buildings

 Offices

 Government headquarters

 Apartments

 Industrial complexes
View of the top of the Chrysler Building in New York

Empire State Building

Art Deco theater building

 Simple form and shape-
simple forms were one of the hallmarks of
the arts and craft style

 Natural motif- Nature was an important source

Of arts and crafts motifs. The patterns used were
Inspired by the Flora and Fauna of the British
countryside

 Truth to material-Preserving and emphasizing

the natural qualities of the materials used to make objects.
Examples:

The Gamble house

Nathan G. Moore House, 1895

(Frank Lloyd Wright) John
Donat / RIBA Collections
 Beaux-Arts architecture is classical
in nature with Greco-Roman styling
 beaux arts means 'fine arts' in
French
 The Beaux Arts Movement was
popular in the United States from
about 1880-1930 and reflected the
wealth that accumulated during the
Industrial Revolution
 It harkens back to classic Greek and
Roman forms
 This style of architecture
originated from Ecole des
Beaux-Arts (School of the Fine
Arts) in France where many
architects studied
 The first Americans to study
there were Richard Morris Hunt
and Henry Hobson Richardson
 They brought the style to the
United States and inspired a
number of other students to
study abroad
 At the École, students would redraw columns, cornices and
triangular pediments from classical Greek and Roman
buildings
 they learned to emphasize the importance of grand arrival
halls and the progression of formal spaces in floor plans
 the buildings they designed conveyed a sense of heaviness
 honored the history of ancient ideals
 making the Beaux-Arts style widely popular in cultural and
government institutions, as well as homes for the wealthy
 Focus on symmetry
 Hierarchy of interior spaces
 Classical details, including
columns and pediments
 Highly decorative surfaces
 Statues and figures
embedded within the façade
 Stone or stone-like materials
 Art Deco, sometimes referred to as Deco, is a
style of visual arts, architecture and design that
first appeared in France just before World War
 It took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from
the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs
et industriels modernes (International Exhibition
of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in
Paris in 1925
 It combined modern styles with fine
craftsmanship and rich materials. During its
heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour,
exuberance, and faith in social and technological
progress.
 Art Deco was a pastiche of many different
styles, sometimes contradictory, united by a
desire to be modern. From its outset, Art Deco
was influenced by the bold geometric forms of
Cubism and the Vienna Secession; the bright
colors of Fauvism and of the Ballets Russes
 It featured rare and expensive materials, such
as ebony and ivory, and exquisite
craftsmanship. The Chrysler Building and other
skyscrapers of New York built during the
1920s and 1930s are monuments of the Art
Deco style
 Great Depression, Art Deco became more
subdued. New materials arrived, including
chrome plating, stainless steel, and plastic. A
sleeker form of the style, called Streamline
Moderne
 Art Deco is one of the first truly international
styles, but its dominance ended with the
beginning of World War II and the rise of the
strictly functional and unadorned styles of
modern architecture and the International
Style of architecture that followed.
 The architectural style of art deco made its debut
in Paris in 1903–04, with the construction of two
apartment buildings in Paris, one by Auguste
Perret on rue Trétaigne and the other on rue
Benjamin Franklin by Henri Sauvag
 The two young architects used reinforced
concrete for the first time in Paris residential
buildings; the new buildings had clean lines,
rectangular forms, and no decoration on the
facades; they marked a clean break with the art
nouveau style.
 Art Deco elements also appeared in
engineering projects, including the towers of
the Golden Gate Bridge and the intake towers
of Hoover Dam. In the 1920s and 1930s it
became a truly international style
 ACM promoted simple items
manufactured through good
craft techniques
 It was a rebellion against the
age of mass production
 A return to traditional craft
methods and “romantic”
forms of decoration
 Manufactured by individuals
or small groups rather than
on a mass production line
 Ornamental objects, floral fabrics,
book making, weaving, jewellery,
metalwork and ceramics, were all
influenced by the ACM
 ACM developed from the views of
people such as William Morris (1834-
1896)
 He believed in a combination of
simplicity, good design and craft work
 His views and opinions were also
supported by the artist/ influential
social intellectual, John Ruskin (1819-
1900)
 as the movement grew in influence,
architecture, furniture making and the
decorative arts such as interior design,
started to display the simplicity and
craft approach
 They supported economic and social
reforms as a way of attacking the
industrialised age
 ACM believed that the industrial
revolution had made man less creative
as ‘his’ craft skills had been removed
from the manufacturing process
 Their aim was to put ‘man’ back into
the design and manufacturing
process
 ACM influence other art movements
such as Bauhaus and Modernism
 They believed that simple functional
designs should look good and be
aesthetically pleasing
 Manufactured products should be
enjoyed for the way they looked and
not only for their functional
application