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.

Minoru Yamasaki’s weird 1200 Brickell Ave., Miami

Yamasaki, along with Edward Durrell Stone, designed some of the most unusual skyscrapers.

Often vaguely gothic, Yamasaki was trying to add a human scale or visual interest to these buildings.

Maybe, Yamasaki, Stone, and Morris Lapidus were the first post-modernists.

(c)Bill Lebovich,all rights reserved,2014