Art Deco architecture of New York City

's size spurred the passage of zoning laws that affected Art Deco architecture in the city. American Art Deco has its origins in European arts, especially the style moderne popularized at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, from which Art Deco draws its name (Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes). While the United States did not officially participate, Americans—including New York City architect Irwin Chanin ==Common elements==

The buildings that would later be described as Art Deco shared common elements. The setback laws resulted in sculptural buildings with long, uninterrupted piers rising between columns of windows and decorated spandrels.|alt=Closeup of a portion of a building, with a multicolored relief decorated with a sunburst, mythological animals, and beehives, on a green background. Below the relief are long piers of windows and brick walls. Architectural historian Rosemarie Haag Bletter described the most pronounced element of Art Deco as its use of "sumptuous ornament". adding more stories and a 200-foot spire of its own. The Chrysler Building's spire went up just one day before the October 1929 Wall Street Crash that triggered the economic turmoil of the Great Depression. The immediate impact of the Depression was a reduction in building of all kinds; one architectural firm went from 17 filed plans for buildings up to 30 stories in 1929 to just three plans in 1930, the tallest being four stories. The scope of some existing construction was also downsized; the Metropolitan Life Company intended to capture the title for the tallest building with the Metropolitan Life North Building, but construction stopped during the downturn and never resumed, leaving it an "enormous stump" of 31 stories instead of the planned hundred. In the shadow of the deepening Depression, the Metropolitan Opera abandoned its plans to move to a new three-block complex financed by John D. Rockefeller Jr. Rockefeller decided to proceed with the construction of Rockefeller Center, hiring three different architectural firms. The architects envisioned a plan for buildings arranged on several axes, clad in the same materials. At the center was 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The Rockefellers earmarked $150,000 ($ adjusted for inflation) for art in the plaza alone, filling the space with paintings, reliefs, and sculptural forms. The decorative features focus on the achievements of humankind, mythology, and stories of education and commerce. ==Art Deco in the city==

Commercial The heyday of Art Deco skyscrapers was effectively ended by the Great Depression, but Art Deco had proliferated outwards across the city in myriad forms. At 59th Street, Bloomingdale's expanded to encompass an entire city block in 1930, with the new addition featuring a black and gold facade festooned with decorative metal grilles. These buildings featured Deco hallmarks of geometric patterns and colored brick, with indirectly lit public interiors floored with tile, framed with metal, and capped by mosaic ceilings. Private interiors featured sunken living rooms, wrap-around windows in the corners, and ample closet space; inside and out these apartments were designed to appeal to the fashion-conscious, "new money" middle class. The money went to projects such as a network of public pools across the city, with Crotona Park in the Bronx and Tompkinsville Pool in Staten Island being built with Art Deco flourishes. |alt=A large metal door is flanked with golden creatures and persons. Art Deco's influence affected many aspects of New York's public works during this period; by the late 1930s, most Art Deco buildings were municipal projects, not commercial ones. Other Art Deco sanitation buildings include the Tallman Island Water Pollution Control Plant in Queens and the Manhattan Grit Chamber in East Harlem. Art Deco libraries from the period include the Central Library of the Brooklyn Public Library. Though construction began in 1911, by 1930 it was still incomplete. The Library hired new architects in 1935 that hewed to the original footprint, but discarded the Greco-Roman elements for a modern look. The resulting facade is sparsely ornamented, with the main decoration being pylons illustrating the arts and sciences with gilded images, flanking entry doors surrounded by gilded bronze reliefs of figures from American literature. and the ventilation tunnels and portals of the Lincoln Tunnel, which opened in 1937 and connect New Jersey and Manhattan. The first Art Deco school in the city was Public School 98 in the Bronx, one of the first new schools built to establish a separate junior high school program in the city. Public School 98 was joined by Joan of Arc High School on the Upper West Side, one of the first buildings designed by Eric Kebbon, school buildings superintendent on the New York Board of Education who ultimately designed more than 100 schools for the city. The High School was designed more like a skyscraper than a traditional school building, with long brick piers rising up to accommodate two thousand students. The triple-height entranceway contains an inscription of the school's name and symbols from the story of Joan of Arc. Other buildings include the Trinity Baptist Church and Temple Emanu-El of New York, both on the Upper East Side. ==Decline and legacy==

A 1932 Museum of Modern Art architecture exhibit introduced the International Style to New Yorkers. many smaller commercial buildings remodeled to fit the newest tastes. The downturn in New York City's fortunes in the latter half of the 20th century caused the damage and loss of many Art Deco buildings. and Radio City Music Hall's interiors were landmarked only after a contentious battle with the Music Hall's owners, who wished to demolish it. The Landmarks Commission received more than 100,000 signatures urging the landmark status. Groups such as the Art Deco Society of New York (ADSNY) produce talks and tours about the city's architecture, as well as advocating for the preservation of the city's remaining Deco. New York City Landmarks Commission veteran Anthony W. Robins wrote that decades after the rise and fall of Art Deco, the style "survives and flourishes" in New York. The once-daring buildings have become city historic landmarks, and new building projects draw influence from the style. ==Landmarked buildings==

Below is a partial listing of city-landmarked Art Deco buildings within New York City. Items marked with a dagger (†) are also (or alternatively) listed on the National Register of Historic Places, those with a double dagger (‡) have landmarked interiors, and those with a section sign (§) are National Historic Landmarks. == See also ==