Long Beach Art Deco

Images of America: California

by Suzanne Tarbell Cooper, John W. Thomas, J. Christopher Launi

At 5:55 p.m. on March 10, 1933, Southern California was rocked by a massive earthquake. Wood-frame bungalows lost their chimneys, and engineered concrete buildings suffered minimal damage. But unreinforced masonry buildings near the epicenter failed catastrophically, and Long Beach was particularly hard hit. Nearly three-quarters of the school buildings, as well as many other structures, were rendered unusable until repaired or rebuilt. The Art Deco style, in addition to being fashionably modern in 1933, met the criteria of earthquake safety, and many new structures showed its influence. Both the Zigzag Moderne style of the 1920s, which boasted many structures that survived the earthquake, and the Streamline Moderne style that came into vogue in the 1930s relied on sleek lines with decoration incorporated into the design. This volume celebrates, in both word and image, the Long Beach that rose from the rubble to become a premier Art Deco city.

128 pages, Paperback

Published August 28, 2006

Reviews

[Tenio Latev · Rating 3 out of 5]

tenio latev
i love this book! the dark monolitic art deco style got a fresh paint and a good start into something more useful than just beeing a mirror of decadent life style of the swinging 1920ies! if you love long beach because snoop dogg is from that area, now you have another reason to love art deco and long beach!