Tonight we're gonna party like its 1939

Mid-Century Modernism is my favorite period in architecture. Modernism is a transitional design idiom that takes us from Art Deco and is a precursor to the International Style. I am always uplifted by the sense of optimism that Modernist buildings display. They are often grand and corporate but are never infused with the Ozymandian portent that International Style buildings instantly generate due to their inhuman scale.

Like Art Deco before it, Mid-Century Modernism had strong design cues and could be executed with economy with a simple superstructure clad in a few details executed with glamourous materials. Put away that marble – we're going with terrazzo! All of this gave the effect of great style at the lowest possible cost. It was therefore possible for any architect in almost any burgh to propose a Modernist building for a new build. Mid-Century Modernism was also perfectly suited for that most common low-cost high style Mid-Century build – the shopping mall.

Growing up in a small City with a Pop. of 250,000 I was not exposed to a great number of international design movements. But Modernism was everywhere. And I remember the sense of occasion one had going to these buildings. They were slick, clean and up-to-date. There were escalators or elevators. One was always the newest medical building. Just walking in the front door you new they would have the latest advances in medical technology. Whatever ailed you would soon be cured.

Then there were the City's two shopping malls, both executed in Modernist style. What is more exciting to a young person, or anyone, than a trip to a shopping Valhalla? And finally, in the 1960s all apartment towers were being executed in the chic Modernist style.

My real passion for Mid-Century Modernism is what I have named the “Pavilion Style”. In the Canadian City of Toronto there is an entire complex of fairground buildings called the Canadian National Exhibition. These are a fairgrounds so old that once a Crystal Palace was the main structure.

And before all of those things was the 1939 New York's Worlds Fair. And recently an amazing series of “electric city” style nocturnal time exposures has emerged. Breathtaking!

The story is great, but I recommend scrolling half-way down the page to the photo gallery. Read the story afterword and you will appreciate it more.

Power Plant Mondays - The Kelenföld abandoned Art Deco power station

Kelenföld is an abandoned Art Deco power station in Budapest. Well Buda, actually. Opened in 1914, the facility is in a transitional design idiom that has Art Nouveau tendrils vining around its control surfaces and obsolete generators. Described by all who have the privilege of touring it as "electrifying", it is a thrill to witness in photographs.

Kelenföld is protected under heritage designation, although it is not being maintained in any meaningful way. It's not being preserved - it just can't be demolished. About the only heritage activity is that it is bi-annually open to the public during a Buda "Doors Open".

Source: Blackdog.photo on Flickr

More to the story...

Kelenföld in Slate

Atlas Obscura

Gizmodo

Art-Streamline-Deco-Moderne

Nothing provides more torment for the strolling urbanite than correctly classifying architecture dans le mode Arts Decoratifs. Because, quite frankly that Art Deco building you pass every day almost certainly is not Art Deco.

First, and most obviously, because Art Deco dates from les Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs, April to October 1925. Yet the term Art Deco is not coined until 1960. Art Deco was an exhibition, not a school. Thus it has become conflated with the contemporary and formal architectural schools of, say, The Bauhaus in Germany and De Stijl in the Netherlands.

Also since we are talking about the city of Toronto, we could not be farther away from the European capitals where Art Deco was practiced.

Finally, Art Deco was never about architecture. Art Deco is about household decoration. The primary Art Deco object is a cocktail shaker. In an Art Deco cocktail cabinet.

Then there is the practical business that in the period 1914 to 1939 the world was:

• Twice at war
• In a recession
• Traveling by steamer

The totality of these conflated realities is that there were almost no chances for wealthy American property developers to:

• Become exposed to the ideas of Art Deco
• Find expert architects to design Art Deco skyscrapers
• Have sufficient funds in the bank to build Art Deco skyscrapers
• Have a sufficient labor force to mobilize to build their chic and modern tributes to their own inner Croesus

Thus it is with confidence I state that your favorite Art Deco building might be Art Moderne. It might even be Streamline Moderne. But it is NOT Art Deco.

Let us use this humble borough war memorial to function as our Rosetta Stone and provide the codex of Art-Streamline-Deco-Moderne.

Click image for slide show

What do we see?

• Clean lines
• A trapezoid shape
• Limestone
• Corners without fillet or radius curve
• Period font
• Only one obscure glyph - the memorial wreath
• Korean War -1950s

And directly across the street is this superb Streamline Moderne masterpiece - Toronto East General Hospital, circa 1949...

"Fox, you ask - Why Streamline Moderne and not Art Moderne?". Good question. Those horizontal speedlines are among the most characteristic design element of Streamline Moderne. To qualify in this category, something on the building must look like it's going fast

Sadly, here is a cute little Art Moderne cottage right next door to the hospital. With a callous application of siding and brick veneer her perfect lines have been completely destroyed...

Finally, here is a real Art Deco building, Hamilton's 1930 Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo passenger train station...

copyleft Wikimedia Commons


And finally, another look at that beautiful Art Deco building that has been destroyed in the 21st century

Update: Art Deco Gem - 103 Church Street

Update: The main floor tenant Golden Thai Restaurant has closed after 20 years 

There has sat at the corner of Church and Richmond a tiny perfect Art Deco masterpiece for four score and two years! The 1930 J. Frank Raw Building is one of the platonic ideal of Arts Decoratif movement. It's all here- the limestone finish, the font-astic typography of her numberboard, the Egyptian ziggurat setbacks (absolutely essential for period), the octagonal windows, the mullioned windows... even the curve of streetcar track is perfect and to period.

And, most significantly, it has been well maintained. Many of its peers have been "improved", typically by adding a 50 story modernist tower on three sides of them. Or carving them out into a cheapjack theatre, like the conversion of the TSE into "The Design Exchange".

The Art Deco Society officially records the building as the 1932 Charles Dolphin Building. Given that Dolphin's masterpiece was the 1941 Postal Delivery Building now called "The Air Canada Centre" it is an impressive pedigree for this building.

And here is what happens to Art Deco buildings when they are not maintained properly.

Queen's Park's Whitney Block Tower

The Whitney Block Tower is a Modern Gothic structure added in 1932 to architect F. R. Heakes 1928 Whitney Block. It is faced with Queenston limestone. Due to the building being situated on the street racing part of Queen's Park Crescent most people take no heed of it.

As first built it was an eclectric complex for a Provincial Government headquarters, featuring

• a bowling alley in the basement
• An early form of conditioning that used blocks of ice
• The sixth floor contained animal pens used by the provincial veterinary services that were housed there. Cows were brought up to the lab in an adjacent service elevator.
  
• The elevator is not automated but has to be hand cranked

As imposing as the Whitney Block tower is, it is an abandoned building.

The building hasn't been inhabited since 1968, when it was deemed a fire hazard. There is only one staircase, which makes it unsafe in the event of an emergency evacuation. As well, there is no central mechanical ventilation system. The only way to get fresh air into the building is by opening the windows.

Ship-shape Tip Top

The Crossroads of the Danforth is one of the remaining areas of Toronto that retains working architecture of a previous time. A clear example is this early 20^th century gem Tip Top Auto Collision.

It has been taken over by Jose Murillo, Sr. who has run Tip Top Auto Collision as a family owned and operated business for over 40 years!

Now 3 generations of the Murillo family run the enterprise, with Jose's son Joe Murillo managing the business, Joe's wife, Liane is the Office Manager and their son Zachary is a mechanic.  The Murillo family very active in apprentice training and certification programs for the auto repair industry, 

Personally I'd like to recognize the Murillos for the quality of conservancy they have maintained with regard to this facility, such as sensitive care of the unique signage.

Founder Jose Murillo can still be found at the shop greeting customers and friends.