Fair Park Deco is a fascinating tour of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. Like every American exposition in the 1930s, it began in economic depression. Although its economy had been buoyed by major oil discoveries in the early '30s, Texas agriculture was hard hit by the Great Depression. By the middle of the decade, state officials had set their sights on a great centennial celebration to help stimulate the economy and attract tourist dollars. "If during the next six months the people of the state could become filled with the idea of holding a big celebration on the one hundredth anniversary of the establishment of Texas independence," the state's centennial commission speculated in July, 1934, "it would have the effect of creating a general forward-looking spirit through the state. It would be more stimulating than anything we can think of, and this effect would be immediate." This book focuses specifically on the Art Deco art and architecture of Fair Park--the public spaces, buildings, sculptures and murals that were designed for the 1936 exposition. Most of the chapters in the book represent different areas of Fair Park, with buildings and artwork effectively arranged in the same order that a visitor to the Texas Centennial Exposition might have seen them. The art and architecture are featured in original photography by Jim Parsons and David Bush as well as in historic photographs. Fair Park is one of the finest collections of Deco architecture in the country, but it is so much more: the embodiment of Texan swagger, it is a testament to the Texanic task of creating a dazzling spectacle in the darkest days of the Depression.

In 1936, Texas commemorated the 100th anniversary of its independence from Mexico with a series of statewide celebrations. A central exposition was proposed, with four cities waging a sometimes bitter campaign to secure the rights to stage this auspicious event. At stake for the host city was unparalleled national exposure and a strong economic boost in the midst of the Great Depression. Using the existing grounds and buildings at Fair Park as the basis of its bid, Dallas outhustled and outspent its competitors to be designated as the host city of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. The fair was planned by chief architect George Dahl with legions of talented designers and artists who collaborated to produce one of the great American world's fairs of the 1930s. In addition to the centennial celebration, 1936 marked the 50th anniversary of Fair Park as the site of the great State Fair of Texas. Many of the exhibition structures, livestock barns, and sports and performance venues built for the fair over the previous 50 years were incorporated into the new layout and design of the exposition. The architectural style that was applied to the old and new buildings at Fair Park was described as "Texanic," a combination of Texas iconography and classical motifs with the more spare, streamlined regimen of the moderne style. The result was a revelation to the millions of visitors that attended the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936.

Vivid imagery and original research are the hallmarks of DFW Deco: Modernistic Architecture of North Texas, the latest in Jim Parsons and David Bush's series of books documenting Art Deco and Art Moderne design in the Lone Star State. DFW Deco examines a vibrant architectural heritage that spans legendary eras in American history, from the Roaring Twenties through the Great Depression to World War II. DFW Deco explores the full range of modernistic building styles and some of the uniquely Texan influences that shaped the growing cities of North Texas. Classic zigzag skyscrapers promoted by Fort Worth boosters and Dallas businessmen, Art Deco storefronts in the booming towns of the great East Texas oilfield, and streamlined facilities inspired by innovations in transportation and communications all have a place in this book. DFW Deco looks not only at whole buildings, but also at their finely crafted details, ranging from vibrant tile murals depicting the scope of Texas history on Fort Worth's monumental Will Rogers Memorial Center to stylized gold-leaf pinecones and cotton bolls in the ornate People's National Bank Building in Tyler. Using a mix of original and historical photographs, this lavishly illustrated book promotes an appreciation of Main Street movie theaters, innovative suburban homes, and even a surprising collection of modernistic soft drink bottling plants. DFW Deco also documents the federal programs that helped build exceptional courthouses, schools, and post offices from small towns to big cities. The book ends with a chapter of short biographies of the architects and artists who created these landmarks. By illustrating the broad reach of modernistic design in North Texas, the authors hope to advance the preservation of significant buildings and encourage readers to explore the region themselves and discover their own Art Deco treasures.

An expansive take on American Art Deco that explores Chicago's pivotal role in developing the architecture, graphic design, and product design that came to define middle-class style in the twentieth century Frank Lloyd Wright’s lost Midway Gardens, the iconic Sunbeam Mixmaster, and Marshall Field’s famed window displays: despite the differences in scale and medium, each belongs to the broad current of an Art Deco style that developed in Chicago in the first half of the twentieth century. This ambitious overview of the city’s architectural, product, industrial, and graphic design between 1910 and 1950 offers a fresh perspective on a style that would come to represent the dominant mode of modernism for the American middle class. Lavishly illustrated with 325 images, the book narrates Art Deco’s evolution in 101 key works, carefully curated and chronologically organized to tell the story of not just a style but a set of sensibilities. Critical essays from leading figures in the field discuss the ways in which Art Deco created an entire visual universe that extended to architecture, advertising, household objects, clothing, and even food design. Through this comprehensive approach to one of the 20th century’s most pervasive modes of expression in America, Art Deco Chicago provides an essential overview of both this influential style and the metropolis that came to embody it.

Written in an accessible style, Henry's work places Texas architecture in the wider context of American architectural history by tracing the development of building in the state from late Victorian styles, and the rise of neoclassicism, to the advent of the International Style.... His work provides a welter of new facts, both about the era's buildings and the architects who designed them, and he has catalogued and described most of the important landmarks of the period. -- Southwestern Historical Quarterly ., .a significant contribution to the study of Texas architecture.... -- Drury Blakeley Alexander, author of Texas Homes of the Nineteenth Century Texas architecture of the twentieth century encompasses a wide range of building styles, from an internationally inspired modernism to the Spanish Colonial Revival that recalls Texas' earliest European heritage. This book is the first comprehensive survey of Texas architecture of the first half of the twentieth century. More than just a catalog of buildings and styles, the book is a social history of Texas architecture. Jay C. Henry discusses and illustrates buildings from around the state, drawing a majority of his examples from the ten to twelve largest cities and from the work of major architects and firms, including C. H. Page and Brother, Trost and Trost, Lang and Witchell, Sanguinet and Staats, Atlee B. and Robert M. Ayres, David Williams, and O'Neil Ford. The majority of buildings he considers are public ones, but a separate chapter traces the evolution of private housing from late-Victorian styles through the regional and international modernism of the 1930s. Nearly 400 black-and-white photographs complement thetext. Written to be accessible to general readers interested in architecture, as well as to architectural professionals, this work shows how Texas both participated in and differed from prevailing American architectural traditions.

From the summer of 1933 to the fall of 1934, more than 38 million fairgoers visited a 3-mile stretch along Lake Michigan, home to Chicago's second World's Fair. Millions more experienced the Century of Progress International Exposition through newspaper and magazine articles, newsreels, and souvenirs. Together, all marveled at the industrial, scientific, consumer, and cultural displays, many of which were housed in fifty massive and colorful exhibition halls, the largest architectural project realized in the United States during the Great Depression. In the richly illustrated Building a Century of Progress, Lisa D. Schrenk explores the pivotal role of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair in modern American architecture. She recounts how the exposition's architectural commission promoted a broad definition of modern architecture, not relying on purely aesthetic characteristics but instead focusing on new design solutions. The fair's pavilions incorporated recently introduced building materials such as masonite and gypsum board; structural innovations (for example, the first thin-shell concrete roof and the first suspended roof structures built in the United States); and new construction processes, most notably the use of prefabrication. They also featured curiosities like the giant, constantly operating mayonnaise maker and the glass-walled House of Tomorrow, which had no operable windows. Schrenk shows how the halls' designs reflected cultural and political developments of the period, including the expanding relationships between science, industry, and government; the rise of a corporate consumer culture; and the impact of the Great Depression. Many of the designs provoked intense responses from critics and other prominent architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright and Ralph Adams Cram, fueling heated debates over the appropriate direction for architecture in the United States. Demonstrating the rich diversity of progressive American building design seen at the fair, Building a Century of Progress captures a crucial moment in American modernism. Lisa D. Schrenk is assistant professor of architecture and art history at Norwich University and former education director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation.

Take a striking journey with photographer Paul Clemence through Miami's South Beach, home to some of the world's most extraordinary Art Deco architecture. Highlighting the elements that create and define the Art Deco style, this collection of 64 black-and-white photographs is a cross between a fine art photography and a travel book that captures the emotion and expresses the spirit of South Beach.