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ART DECO Art Déco is a design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s and into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design. The term "art deco" was first used in 1926, after an exhibition in Paris, “Les Années 25” sub-titled Art Deco, celebrating the 1925 “International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts”. Art deco represented elegance, glamour, functionality and modernity. Art deco's linear symmetry was a distinct departure from the asymmetrical organic curves of its predecessor style Art Nouveau. Architectural examples survive in many different locations worldwide. In New York, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center are among the largest and best-known examples of the style. This style is characterized by use of materials such as aluminium, stainless steel, lacquer, Bakelite, Chrome and inlaid wood. The use of stepped forms and geometric curves, fountains, and the radial motif are typical of Art Deco. An example is the radial motif and the spire of the Chrysler Building.

The Empire State Building Some of the most know characteristics of the Empire State Building are that it has:

102 levels; a roof height of 381 meters and, with its antenna spire

included, it stands a total of 443.2 meters high; a Floor area of 257,211 square meters; the first building to have more than 100 floors; 6,500 windows; 73 elevators; 1,860 steps from street level to the 102nd floor; Approximately 21,000 employees work in the building each

day; The Empire State Building cost $40,948,900 to build in

1931,equal to roughly $500,000,000 in 2010.

The project was

financed primarily by John J. Raskob (a financial executive and businessman for DuPont and General Motors) and Pierre S. du

Pont (president of DuPont, an American chemical company). The construction started 1929 and was completed 1931. Its name is derived from the nickname for New York, the Empire State. It has been the world's tallest building for 40 years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building reclaimed the position of tallest building in

New York. This until the construction of the new One World

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Trade Center (Freedom Tower), then it will once again be the second tallest building in New York. The Empire State Building is designed in the distinctive Art Déco style and has been listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The Empire State Building is currently the 3rd tallest skyscraper in the United States and the 15th all over world. The Empire State Building is currently undergoing a $550 million renovation, with $120 million spent in an effort to transform the building into a more energy efficient and eco-friendly structure. The Empire State Building was designed by William Frederick Lamb from the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, using earlier designs of two buildings, the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem (North Carolina) and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati (Ohio) as a basis. The lobby is three levels high and features an aluminium relief of the skyscraper without the antenna, which was not added to the spire until 1952. Over 50 artists and workers used 15,000 square feet of aluminium and 1,300 square feet of 23-karat gold foil to re-create the mural damaged in the past.

The Empire State Building has one of the most popular outdoor observatories in the world, having been visited by over 110 million people. The 86thfloor observation deck offers impressive 360-degree views of the city. There is a second observation deck on the 102ndfloor that is open to the public, it is totally enclosed and covered.

William Frederick Lamb William Frederick Lamb was born the 21 November 1883 and died in the 8 September 1952. He was the principal designer of the Empire State Building. Lamb was born in Brooklyn and studied at William College, Columbia University's School of Architecture and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He joined the firm of Carrere & Hastings in 1911. In 1929 the firm changed its name to Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. The firm also designed 521 Fifth Avenue, the Forbes Magazine Building, the Standard Oil Building, the Bankers Trust Building and worked with H. Craig Severence on 40 Wall Street in New York. He died in New York City.

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Chrysler Building

The Chrysler was built in 1928-1930 by Walter P.

Chrysler. Its design was a 77-story tall triumph of Art Deco,

and it was one of the first skyscrapers to make a major use of

metal in its construction and adornment. Many consider it the most important Art Deco building in

the world.

Heady from that success, Walter P.Chrysler teamed up with architect William Van Alen for the

design and construction of an office skyscraper. Van Alen was essentially given a blank check to

come up with a design to fit the car magnate's ambition.

Architects Van Alen and H. Craig Severance, the architect of the Bank of Manhattan's building at 40

Wall Street, had been former partners but were now ardent rivals – both wanted to build the tallest

building in the world. Severance had just finished the structural work on his Bank of Manhattan

building by a winning margin of less than one meter, so Van Alen revealed his trump card on

October 23, 1929, just one day before the stock market made its first plunge. To hide the last design

revision to incorporate a needle-like top, the pieces for the 27-ton

vertex were hoisted to the 65th floor, assembled inside the

spire and, with the help of a derrick, raised that day in just

one and a half hours to add another 37.5 meters to the

building's height – a total of 1,048 feet – exceeding

the Eiffel Tower (then the tallest structure in the

world). It was the first building ever to exceed 1,000

feet in height. However, four months later the rapidly

ascending Empire State Building caught up and

overtook the Chrysler Building’s height. Nevertheless, it

remains the world’s tallest brick building.

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Completed at a cost of $20 million, the Chrysler Building was officially

opened on May 27, 1930.

The building is clad in white brick and dark gray brickwork is used

as horizontal decoration to enhance the window rows. The

eccentric crescent-shaped steps of the spire are made of

chrome-nickel steel as a stylized sunburst motif, and

underneath it immense steel chimeras depicting American

eagles, which stare over the city. The building has a lot of

ornamentation that is based on features that were being used

on Chrysler cars of the day. The corners of the sixty first floor

are graced with eagles.

The three story high, upwards tapering entrance lobby has a triangular

form, with entrances from three sides. The lobby is lavishly decorated with

red Moroccan marble walls, sienna-colored travertine floor and onyx, blue marble and steel in Art

Deco compositions. The ceiling mural, the largest in the world at its completion, was painted by

Edward Trumbull and praises the modern-day technical progress.

All of the building's 32 elevators are lined in a different

pattern of wooden paneling; eight varieties of wood

from all over the world were used in the elevator

decor. The doors are of a fantastic design that

perhaps better than anything indicates the great

influence of ancient Egyptian designs on the birth

of Art Deco – the burst of Deco's themes and the

uncovering of the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922

being a good coincidence.

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Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings in art deco style. This complex covers 22 hectares (89,000 m2) between 48 ° and 51 streets in New York City, USA. Built by the Rockefeller family, is located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

The idea for the construction of this project dates back to 1920 when the oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera, which he would build a new theater in the area, decided to build the largest private construction project ever undertaken in modern times, but after the Wall Street crash of 1929, he retired from the Metropolitan project, and Rockefeller was the only lender.

He started in 1928 by entering into a lease with Columbia University, which owns the land, the contract was initially for a period of 27 years, with the clause of three consecutive renewals with the total duration of 87 years. Work on the construction of the first 14 buildings began May 17, 1930 and was completed in 1939.

Between the 60s and 70s were joined by 4 other towers in the area west of the complex, along the Avenue of the Americas.

In 1985, Columbia University finally gave the land on which stood the complex to the Rockefeller Group for 400 million dollars. Since the late eighties several owners followed, now belongs to a real estate company Tishman Speyer owns some of the most important buildings in the world.

For the design of Rockefeller Center complex participated in three studies of architecture, but the most important people are the architects Raymond Hood and Wallace Harrison, later became the chief architect of the family and advisor to Nelson Rockefeller.

The main buildings of this complex are the Radio City Music Hall, one of the largest and most opulent theater in the world, with its interior are one of the world's greatest examples of art deco. The Radio City Music Hall became famous for his greatness, and for his enormous stage from

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which debuted artists like Frank Sinatra and countless other events were presented today represents one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York.

No less important and famous is the GE Building a skyscraper of 70 floors, 266 meters high, which is the heart of Rockefeller Center. It houses, among others, the offices of the Rockefeller family, the headquarters of NBC, and the 65th floor restaurant, the famous Rainbow Room, atop the skyscraper is the Top of the Rock, a vantage point from which there is a panorama of the city of New York.

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Senate House

Senate House is the administrative center of the University of London, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, London, between the School of Oriental and African Studies in the north, south and the British Museum. The main building contains the University of London's central organs, including the offices of Vice-Chancellor of the University, the entire collection of the Library Room of the Senate, and eight of the ten research institutes of the School of Advanced Study. The Art Deco-style building was built between 1932 and 1937, consists of 19 floors with 64 m in height, making it to 1957 for the second tallest building in London (after the Cathedral of Saint Paul), the façade design load-bearing masonry built with Portland stone.

Senate House was designed by Charles Holden who elaborated this building as a single structure extending for nearly 370 m from Place Montague Street in Torrington. Had to be composed of a central spine, connected by a set of wings to the facade perimeter enclosing so a series of courtyards. The system had to be surmounted by two towers, a smaller one to the north, and a 19-story the Senate House. But due to lack of funds for the start of the war expenses during the Second World War, the project has been progressively reduced, and finally only the Senate and the Library have been completed.

Charles Holden was an English architect known for designing as well as Senate House, for the design of many

London Underground stations during the years 1920 and 1930, Bristol Central Library, and

Underground Electric Railways Company of London. Although not without its critics, its architecture is widely appreciated, received the Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1936 and was appointed

Royal Designer for Industry in 1943. His plans for the station of the London

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Underground have influenced the plans for future Metro stations. Many of its buildings has been granted the status of a historic building, thereby protecting them from unapproved modifications.

Today Senate House remains an important point of reference for the whole Bloomsbury and is visible from a distance. The building was listed as Grade II *, which includes buildings of particular importance or special interest, in 1969, and continues to be the seat of Vice-Rector of the University of London and the headquarters of the University Library which has about three million of which 120,000 volumes of books printed before 1851.