Description: This exploration of Art Deco architectural design embraces many different times and places in its visual and verbal account of the movements origins, development, and influence. Various types of architecture, the author explains, were termed Art Deco, and their antecedents were mixed and often surprising: Arts and Crafts, fin-de-siecle Vienna, Cubism, Expressionism, and the Bauhaus. Art Deco's sheer exuberance ensured its success across the globe, and it adapted to the most diverse situations, as shown by examples ranging from offices in Europe and gas stations in America to maharajahs' palaces in India and imperial dwellings in Japan. Public buildings of all kinds -- whether fountain or state capitol, skyscraper or bus terminal -- bear witness to its decades of popularity.

Despite its historic pedigree, Art Deco design is very much alive today. Post-modernism has borrowed its repertoire of motifs and idioms to produce what, in some cases, amounts to a full-blown revival. Many of the original buildings still survive, now restored to their former glory, to be admired and enjoyed.

Sumptuously illustrated, this unrivaled study provides a comprehensive guide to the best loved of all twentieth-century architectural styles.

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