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Moderne architecture in the United States

Tuesday, 29 April 2025 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika
Category/Kategorie: General, Architecture Reading Time:  2 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Moderne architecture, also sometimes referred to as Style Moderne, Art Moderne, or simply Moderne, Jazz Age Moderne, jazz modern or Jazz Style, describes certain styles of architecture popular from 1925 through the 1940s. It is closely related to Art Deco.

The terminology is not very firm; during the time when the styles were used, they were simply known as Moderne. A distinction between subtypes was later introduced by David Gebhard: Zigzag, Streamline, and PWA (Public Works Administration) Moderne. The term Art Deco was only popularized by Bevis Hillier in 1968 and then used quite indiscriminately, and therefore some researchers prefer to use it only for the decorative forms and, when referring to architecture, only for the highly ornamented buildings of the late 1920s.

Originating in the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925, the style has expression in styles traditionally classified as Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, Late Moderne, and, in the U.S., PWA/Classical Moderne. Architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson characterized the style by the eclectic co-existence of “traditionalism and modernism”.

Art Moderne, with its novel streamline character, also manifested itself in the design of cars, planes and ships. It does sometimes overlap with Art Deco in the design of certain buildings, but it has a horizontal emphasis, as opposed to the vertical emphasis of Art Deco.

Read more on Wikipedia PWA Moderne, Wikipedia Miami Modern architecture and Wikipedia Moderne architecture (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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