Art Deco Features

Exterior features of art deco structures:

Stepped back features, but the roofs have only flat rooflines. If a skyscraper appears to have a taper it is usually the exterior lines, and not the actual roof itself. The architecture often includes balconies and roof over-hangings to compliment the exterior lines of the building.

Devoid of decorations elsewhere, art deco buildings tend to have ornate entranceways. Hence a building having a rather austere exterior, yet with a somewhat grand and ornate entranceway, might indicate an art deco structure.

Materials and Colors

Ornamented with trims and moldings in terra cotta tiles, glass blocks, aluminum, colored glass or stainless steel the exterior structure of an art deco building would usually be in concrete, stucco or brick.

glazed terra-cotta, Vitrolite, ceramic or gloss metallic panels and glass brick.

Art deco structures exhibit a subdued color palette mostly – tans, crèmes, whites or exposed concrete color.The ornamentation or trims are often in pastel colors: warm pinks, mint or light green, peaches and mauves. But a stark contrast is also visible at times when the trims go on to the other side of a spectrum, exhibiting a bold look of black shiny aluminum or stainless steel.

Combinations in contrasting colors, color which deviate slightly from each other, rich deep non related colors – cobalt blue, deep, dark, fiery red, sparse rich or subtle bold; Art deco ornamentation exhibits a wide style.

Unlike the predecessor Noveau, Deco architects believed in working with the natural beauty of the structure and using the ornamental detail to highlight the overall aesthetic of the building, rather than overpowering and cluttering with excessive details.

Windows

Porthole, resembling the round windows found on an ocean liner it pursued a nautical look.

Eg. Coca cola plant building in LA. But an Art deco building, especially home designs, will only employ the use of a single porthole window to highlight the same nautical theme.

Other windows style varied with the kind of art deco treatment that the building followed. E.g. in Jazz-age deco, the windows were shaped to compliment the verticality of the building, taking the form of tall slender bay windows.

Whereas in Streamline Deco the openings tended to be long, ribbon like windows that fit into the streamlined shape of the exterior.

Bauhaus, a style that competed with Art deco in the same period also had the similar long, slender windows incorporated in the structures. But Deco windows often flowed with the exterior of the buildings wrapping around at the edges and the corners of the buildings. The international style or Bauhaus was box-like and had little fluidity in its exterior lines. Streamline Moderne deco windows were evidenced by the use of curved glass or glass block which followed the smooth lines of the buildings exterior shape contributing to the buildings grace.