2025 marks the centennial of the grand Parisian exposition that gave Art Deco its name, which will be celebrated at the next biennial World Congress on Art Deco in Paris and in cities around the world, including New York. Largely devalued and forgotten in favor of the International Style following World War II, Art Deco today seems to be everybody’s favorite style and its major monuments have been restored and protected as official city landmarks. In honor of the 2025 centennial, this course explores Art Deco’s evolution in New York City, and its grand revival. We will explore the development of Art Deco architecture as a skyscraper style to its rapid rise to every other building type, as well as the rediscovery of the style in the 1960s leading to the designation of Art Deco landmarks throughout the city. We will end the course with a survey of the apartment blocks on and around the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The course includes excerpts of interviews with three architects whom the instructor was fortunate enough to meet and interview in the early 1980s, as well as a walking tour covering the most famous Art Deco icons of Midtown Manhattan, ranging from the Chrysler Building to the city’s grandest Art Deco complex, Rockefeller Center. Taught by the founding member and Vice President of the Art Deco Society of New York and author of New York Art Deco: A Guide to Gotham’s Jazz Age Architecture, this course provides students a unique opportunity to examine and celebrate Art Deco’s legacy in New York City.

You'll walk away with

• The ability to define and identify the Art Deco style
• Familiarity with notable architects and the development of a variety of New York neighborhoods featuring the Art Deco Style
• Knowledge about the revival of the Art Deco style and the current landmark status of its major monuments in New York City

Ideal for

• Art and architecture enthusiasts
• Practicing and aspiring arts professionals
• History buffs