Council Offices, Port Adelaide

The Council Offices in Port Adelaide dating from 1939 were designed by Adelaide architect, Christopher A Smith.

Note the rounded corner of the building and the horizontal bands above each bank of windows. A small balcony above the main entrance with metal railings also features similar banding and is offered a little shelter by a series of three eyebrows stacked on top of each other, underlining the city crest.

Reference: Twentieth Century Heritage Survey, Stage Two (1928-1945), Peter Bell, Carol Cosgrove, Susan Marsden & Justin McCarthy 2008, volume 2, P40

Globe Hotel, Port Adelaide

When I took this picture about 5 years ago, this was a hotel with a crisis of identity. There are clearly two names. Globe Hotel along the top of the building and Golden Port Tavern in the faded paintwork of the wooden verandah. I have seen a more recent photo and the verandah has been repainted covering the Golden Port Tavern name but the Globe Hotel name has also been painted the same colour as the hotel facade suggesting to me that it no longer goes by that name either.

In any case, it is a fine looking Art Deco pub in Port Adelaide that was probably called the Globe Hotel in the 1930s when it was built (or renovated). A bit of detective work looking at the photos, shows that the signage on the left of the building covers the older Globe Hotel name indicating that the Golden Port Tavern is a more recent incarnation.

Does anyone in Port Adelaide know the history of this pub?

Bronze Doors, French Embassy, Ottawa

I thought I had just about covered all of the French Embassy in Ottawa until I recalled this phot I had taken of these bronze doors in the upper floor Gallery overlooking the Entrance Hall.

There are two sets of these monumental doors in the Gallery featuring four different decorative discs created by Robert Cami.

The first door representing Remembrance features a stylised young woman holding a dove and a banner carrying the words "Je me souviens", Quebec's motto, "I remember". It also includes a nun representing the church and a WWI French soldier in the trenches greeting a Canadian soldier arriving to help the war effort.

Faith on the second door depicts the evangelisation of the Great North of Canada incuding Bishop Gabriel Breynat, a key figure at the time, lumberjacks, trappers and farmers at work and missionary work with the Eskimo population.

Family is preented in the form of an early settler working the land while armed to protect his family, a young woman surrounded by many children and an old seaman telling a story of Canada's history to a group of children.

Finally, Work references the wealth of Canadian agriculture and industry with depictions of a miner, an architect, a young woman holding wheat and fruits, a buffalo, a foundry, agricultural labour and hunting in Winter.

Reference: Emabssy of France in Canada website

Christ the King Church, Tulsa

This is Christ the King Church in Tulsa.

Designed in 1926 by Francis Barry Byrne it was constructed in 1928.

Inside there is a mosiac of Christ behind the alter designed by Emil Frei, Inc and two others by architect Bruce Goff in the side alters. Alfonso Iannelli designed the stained glass windows and the statues of Joseph and Mary.

One of my favourite features was the Art deco baptismal font.

Reference: Christ the King Church, www.tulsapreservationcommission.org

A Factory in Asmara

I have always thought this to be the Asmara Soap Factory but looking in Asmara - Africa's Secret Modernist City by Denison, Yu Ren and Gebremedhin I find that it is not the Soap Factory but its next door neighbour.

In any case it si a factory and it is in Asmara and it does have a spectacular three storey glass fronted tower and two square columns running from street level to the sky like two antenna.

Reference:
Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City - Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhim

Adelphi Court, Vredehoek

Adelphi Court (1939), designed by architects J Talberg & J Rubenstein.

Reference: Art Deco Architecture, Cape Town Map produced by The Cape Art Deco Society

former Odeon Cinema, Glasgow

This photo shows the Odeon Cinema in Renfield St, Glasgow around 2001.

The building was designed by Samuel Beverley and Frank T Verity for the Paramount Company and opened as the Glasgow Paramount Theatre on 31st December 1934.

It became an Odeon in 1939 when that company purchased all Paramount theatres in the United Kingdom.

It closed in January 2006 and despite plans to redevelop the site while retaining and restoring the Art Deco portion at the front of the former cinema, it remains vacant.

References:
Odeon Glasgow, Cinema Treasures website
Glasgow Odeon - Renfield Street, by Gordon Barr, ReelScotland website
Paramount Building, Glasgow: Information + Images, GlasgowArchitecture website

1950 Clay, Pacific Heights

These Art Deco apartments at 1950 Clay, Pacific Heights are spectacular and they are many others that are similar around the area.

They tend to follow the same general style. Fantastic decoration along the parapet and below the windows and very grand, decorated entrances.

They even have decoartion on the garages as can be seen in the foreground of this photo.

These apartments were designed by Herman C Baumann and built in 1930.

Reference:
Deco by the Bay: Art Deco Architecture in the San Francisco Bay Area ~ Michael F Crowe