Art Deco beauty in Philadelphia

This is a detail from the 1929/1930 (different sources give different dates for completion) skyscraper in downtown Philadelphia.  It has been converted from an office building to a Marriot Hotel.  Ritter & Shay were the architects.

The panels beautifully express the boldness, originality,and exuberance of the Art Deco—-at the beginning of the Great Depression.

Hearst Tower

Designed by Norman Foster, this 2006 skyscraper is dramatically different than any building built at the time.  And I think it broke the mold for how skyscrapers should look.  No more or at least less regular grids of verticals and horizontals in NYC high rise.  Now, more glass, with twists as the building rises or changes in massing.

The Hearst Tower sits on a six story base (in the shadows)  built in 1928.  It has been described as Art Deco,but it is at least as much fortress like.

Fire Station 4, San Diego

Designed by local architect Gustav Adolph Hanssen and built in 1937 by the United States Works Progress Administration,this fire station is marked by its prominent hose drying tower (see view looking up the no longer used tower) and blocky square and vaguely Art Deco detailing, such as chevrons grooved panels between first floor doors and second floor windows on projecting end blocks and tower.  But the most interesting and unusual detail is the hexagonal opening for the pole used by the firefighters to quickly get to the fire engine from the second floor,which is sleeping quarters.  I have never seen any other like this one.  ( I use the spelling of his first name and his full middle name as done in Un. of Illinois alumni publications.  San Diego publications refer to him as Gustave A. Hanssen.),

Art Deco Building Facade, Washington,DC

(copyright Bill Lebovich