The Art Deco style first appeared at the 1925 Paris Exhibition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs. The appearance of the innovative design at the exhibition effectively launched the Art Deco style. The style echos the Machine Age with geometric decorative elements and a vertically oriented design throughout.However, the distinctly urban style was never used widely in residential buildings, it was used more in public and commercial buildings of the period.
The Art Deco style was further popularized by Hollywood movies of the the 1930s. One of the best examples of the style popularization in movies was the Thin Man series staring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, a hard drinking married couple who solve crimes with ease while bantering in an Art Deco designed world.
Residential homes, public and commercial buildings that utilize the style have flat roofs, metal window casements, and smooth stucco walls with rectangular or square cut-outs. Facades are typically finished with zigzags and other stylized floral, geometric, and "sunrise" motifs.
Cincinnati has many examples of the Art Deco style utilized in many downtown commercial buildings.
One of the premiere examples is the Carew Tower located at 441 Vine Street. The building includes 49 floors and rises 574 ft into the Cincinnati skyline.
It contains the Netherland Plaza Hotel, formerly the Omni Netherland Plaza. Palm Court, the former lobby of the hotel, and now a multi-star restaurant, is described by the hotel staff as the finest example of French Art Deco architecture in the world and the food is out-of-this-world.
Take time out and book a reservation and surround yourself in a Art Deco world like Nick and Nora Charles of the Thin Man series.
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