URGENT: Help stop the defacement of Miami Beach's Art Deco district!

The Miami Design Preservation League is encouraging Deco-lovers and others to make their voice heard and help persuade the Miami Beach City Commission NOT to liberalize its proven sign laws at a committee meeting on Monday, Jan. 31.

If the laws are weakened, Miami Beach could soon have full-sized advertising signage in empty store windows, and potentially allow for roof-top billboards – the scourge of so many other cities.

If you feel strongly about preserving the character of this unique historic district, please click here and send a email to the Mayor and Commissioners.

Thanks in advance for your support!

How Deco helped sell glamour and style

The weekend of January 14 to 16, 2011 is the annual Art Deco Weekend in Miami Beach, Florida, and the theme this year is Selling Glamour & Style.

As usual, the weekend includes a lecture series (highlighting the influences of the Art Deco era on the modern marketing machine),guided historical walking tours, a couture fashion show, furniture exhibit, film series, weekend drive parade and classic car fest.

Click here for details.

Thinking of a Deco home renovation?

Our friends in Melbourne Australia have recently updated their popular Guide to Renovating Art Deco. The new version, published by the Art Deco and Modernism Society, contains 35 articles collected from their Spirit of Progress newsletter and is richly illustrated with colour images. 

It's available in either a CD version, selling for $22 (Australian dollars) plus overseas shipping, and a hard copy version for $33 plus shipping. The mailing address to order is:

Art Deco and Modernism Society, PO Box 17, Camberwell, Victoria, 3124, Australia. 

A 'supreme' example of French-flavoured Deco

The Supreme Court of Canada building in Ottawa, designed by Montreal-based architect Ernest Cormier, is one of the most refined examples of Art Deco in the country.

The building elegantly combines Stripped Classical features such as fluted pilasters, coffered ceiling panels and a striking symmetrical marble staircase with geometric frosted panes of glass in the front facade windows and thoroughly modern chandeliers.

It is said that the Prime Minister of the day, William Lyon Mackenzie King, insisted that Cormier add the chateau-style copper roof to the building to make it blend in with its neighbouring buildings. Nonetheless, the building's Deco charm easily shines through!

Thanks to David Thompson's blog posting for this photo and for reminding me about the wonders of this building (which coincidentally, was the reason I got interested in Art Deco in the first place!).

Check out the 360-degree virtual tours of the building from the government's official website.

Feature attraction! gas, milk and a coffee

Allenby (later Roxy) cinema as Hollywood dinner theatre in the 1980s.

Toronto's Allenby cinema – located at 1215 Danforth Ave., just east of Greenwood Ave., later rebranded the Roxy – was designed by noted theatre architects Kaplan and Sprachman in 1936. (After its cinema days were over, it was known to a generation of mostly youthful Torontonians as the home of midnight showings of Rocky Horror Picture Show, and as then as the Hollywood Dinner Theatre before lying closed and derelict for more than a decade. 

About a year ago, things began happening when Imperial Oil (which owned the corner lot, formerly the site of a gas station), began transforming the tired but still intact yellow brick building with decorative stone details into a state-of-the-art On the Run convenience store.

Original canopy has been faithfully
rebuilt, including neon lettering.

With the building now essentially finished, Torontonians who once eagerly lined-up to watch the latest movie now line up in droves to get their daily fix of Tim Hortons coffee!

At end of August, the hoarding was still up.
The contemporary On the Run entrance
is to the far right of the photo, facing west.

 Kudos to Imperial Oil for their wisdom to preserve and restore so much of the building to create a unique 'c-store' experience, and to ERA Architects and Teksign for pulling it off!

Read the story about the building's transformation in articles by Dave Leblanc (The Globe and Mail) and Christopher Hume (The Toronto Star). 

Footnote: Other Deco-era cinemas in Toronto designed by Kaplan and Sprachman are the former Eglinton cinema (400 Eglinton Avenue West, 1934-36); the former Bayview (1605 Bayview Avenue, 1936), the former State (1610 Bloor Street West, 1937), the Metro (679 Bloor Street West, 1938) and the Paradise (1008 Bloor Street West, 1939). Two other Deco cinemas (the Pylon – 608-610 College Street, 1939, now the Royal; and the Kingsway – 3030 Bloor Street West, 1939-40) were designed by different architects. Source: Art Deco Architecture in Toronto by Tim Morawetz, 2009.

Art Deco 'scores a hat trick' at 2010 Heritage Toronto Awards

Tim (far right) and Catherine (to Tim's right)
receive their awards on stage at Koerner Hall
in this rather blurry smartphone photo.

Tim Morawetz is proud and delighted to announce that his book, Art Deco Architecture in Toronto: A guide to the city's buildings from the Roaring Twenties and the Depression, which was previously named a 'Finalist' in the 2010 Heritage Toronto Awards, ended up winning an 'Award of Merit' at the event earlier this evening. (The book was one of three Merit Award recipients, from a field of 10 worthy contenders.) A full listing of all the winners and finalists in all categories is available here.

Tim eagerly shared the recognition with the book's graphic designer, his colleague and friend Catherine Hamill of Norton Hamill Design.

In addition, the Deco era was celebrated, in part, when the 'Award of Excellence' was very deservedly presented to A Passionate Traditionalist: John M. Lyle, Architect (Coach House Books, 2009) by Glenn McArthur.  This book is the definitive work on the life and work of John Lyle – a man who many would say was the premier architect of the first half of the 20th century in English-Canada, and a master and promoter of 'Canadian-themed' Deco architecture at one point in his illustrious career.

Finally, the revitalization of the Automotive Building, 105 Princes' Boulevard on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition – arguably Toronto's best example of the Stripped Classical variant of Art Deco architecture – now the Allstream Centre, was also recognized with an Award of Merit in the 'William Greer Architectural Conservation and Craftsmanship' category.

Automotive Building – BEFORE

Allstream Centre – AFTER

Thanks to the vision of heritage consultants Andre Scheinman; E.R.A. Architects Inc., James Bailey Architect, together with the work of Vanbots Construction Corp. and Clifford Restoration Ltd., the 1929 building was restored and rehabilitated into a conference centre. The original Art Deco style building envelope and north and south lobbies were restored and new conference rooms and support spaces inserted into the original open exhibit hall. Restoration work included repairing exterior cast stone and masonry, reintroducing multi-pane windows to match the originals, cleaning and repairing terrazzo floors and refurbishing or recreating original light fixtures.

Art Deco shimmers in Battle of the Blades

Last year, the Battle of the Blades 'figure-skater / hockey-skater combo' TV show took place at Maple Leaf Gardens, the ultimate Art Deco ice palace (1931; Ross & Macdonald, with Jack Ryrie and Mackenzie Waters).

  Georges Laraque and Anabelle Langlois with classic lotus-leaf Art Deco decoration behind.

But this year, despite the fact the show now originates from a brand-new, custom-built set in a giant production studio, the show's designers have retained the Gardens decor. (Read more from National Post columnist Peter Kuitenbrouwer about the creation of the show's set in the Pinewood Studios Toronto.)

Stone 'balconies' accentual recessed vertical strip windows

For instance, the sides of the hall are adorned with crisply fluted vertical piers topped with the Gardens' signature zig-zag details.

More boldly,  there are decorative screens around the ice surface that feature  timeless Deco lotus leaves.

To me, the fact this shamelessly populist reality TV show is putting Art Deco front-and-centre is the best proof that this style truly resonates with the general public!

Notice the bold zig-zags and horizontal stone detailing on the Gardens' facade.