A House and Shop in Portland

This is an interesting house in Portland, Australia. It is quite plain but the rounded porch give it away as a house probably from the 1930s or 40s. There is also the Art Deco shopfront at the front of the house. No longer open as a shop and with half the window boarded up I can only wonder what it was like in years gone past.

Maricopa County Courthouse, Phoenix

A plaque on the front of the Maricopa County Courthouse says that the building was completed 1928-29 and was used as both the County Courthouse and as the Phoenix City Hall. It goes on to say 'The County Courthouse portion of the building was designed by Louisiana architect, Edward F Neild. The City chose the Phoenix firm of Lescher and Mahoney to construct the city hall'.

Waymaking.com have it the other way around and have spelt the architect's name as 'Nield'.

I would hope that the plaque on the building is correct but stranger things have happened.

It matters little as this is a beautiful building and US Registered Historic Place.

The wings of the building carry plainer decoration than the Courthouse entrance except for the lower storey windows which are stunning.

United Artists Theatre, Berkeley

The United Artists Theatre in Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley opened in 1932. It was designed by Clifford A Balch, P A Eisen, Casto Fernandez Shaw and A R Walker.

Reference: Cinema Treasures, United Artists Berkeley 7

The Card Market, Blackpool

This interesting shop in Blackpool was The Card Market around 2000 when I photographed it. For all I know, it still is the Card Market.

Run-down House in Silver End

I've blogged before about the village of Silver End in Essex where a number of modernist homes designed by Thomas Tait were built for workers of the nearby Crittal windows manufacturing plant.

There were a number of simple homes built for workers and a few larger house for managers, such as Wolverton.

I visited Silver End about 10 years ago and photographed this house, which is very similar to Wolverton, so I would say it is one of the manager's houses. It was quite run-down but offers wonderful potential as a fantastic home.

I wonder how it has faired over the past decade?

128 Millswyn Street, South Yarra

This apartment block on the corner of Millswyn Street and Domain Road, South Yarra was constructed in 1941 and designed by architects Seabrooke & Fildes. Sadly it has recently been demolished to allow the development of more modern apartments.

My favourite aspect of this building is the circular glass section on the corner and the narrow horizontal bands of windows providing light to the stairwell. The curved ends to those windows adding an extra design element.

Reference:
South Yarra Walk Booklet, Art Deco and Modernism Society

Caisse Nationale d'Économie, Montreal

During the 10th World Congress on Art Deco in Montreal in May 2009 our tour of the 'old city' took us to the Caisse Nationale d'Économie building in Saint-Jacques Street West.

The building was designed by Payette and Crevier and constructed in 1938-39. There is simple decoration along the roofline and above the windows. The support for the flag pole is in the form of a fasces.

The dark panels in the centre of the façade between the widows are decorated with a stylised caduceus and almost look Victorian to me while the designs on the panels between the single windows on either side of the façade are striped back to very simple geometric patterns and look very modern.

The doors of the Caisse Nationale d'Économie building are lovely. This photo shows our tour guide Jean-Yves from the Art Deco Society of Montreal explaining the details and history of the building. You can see the interested faces of the group reflected in the glass panes.

A nice feature is the maple leaf included in the metalwork at the each corner of the doors.

As a matter of contrast, the building next door, on the right, was also contructed for the same company but twenty years later. That building was designed by Labelle, Duplessis and Dérome and has very little decoration illustrating the change from pre-WWII to post-WWII.

Reference:
Vieux-Montreal Tour Booklet, 10th World Congress on Art Deco, Montreal

1770 Pacific Avenue, Pacific Heights

I thought this was a very interesting building when I took these pictures earlier this year in San Francisco. The building is a mish-mash of styles. The roofline doesn't match the Art Deco panels below the windows. So I was pleased to see in the brief notes I had made from Deco by the Bay by Michael F Crowe that the building dates from 1902 and was remodelled in 1930.

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