Themes in American History

This is an early 20th century postcard.

In the 1900s, Paris was full of wealthy people traveling in and out, artistic innovations, and jazzy music. Reflective of this freedom and movement of the city, architects built buildings with angular shapes that resembled new cruise ships. This movement was given the name, Art Deco. After World War II hit, the city adopted less flamboyant  styles with a mixture of the old and new styles. Paris experienced a housing boom where empty spaces were filled with government sponsored housing projects built of brick. The new housing was influenced by Art Deco with decorative brickworks. Paris mostly brought it’s bricks from its own limestone bedrock which is why most of their building carried the same color tone.
Similarly,  there was a residential boom in NYC in the early 1900s. The beautiful residential buildings on central park east and central park west were built then. The city also provided public housing which dramatically changed the city’s appearance. New high rise buildings were built in an effort for urban renewal. In many cases they were considered as failures due to the poor maintenance and high crime rates. One of the distinctive features of NYC that can still be seen today are the roof mounted water towers. These were built during the early 1900s with the high rise buildings that were over six floors because these buildings needed too much of a high water pressure to deliver water to the upper levels. Lastly, unlike Paris, NYC drew its stones from different quarries which allowed a variety of textures and hues of stone in the buildings.

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