LongBeach has a large array of Art Deco, from the Queen Mary, to the Lafayette, to little known apartment buildings. In fact, there’s even an entire collection of deco buildings know as Lowell Elementary School that covers several blocks on Livingston Drive.
What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than canvasing the streets of LongBeach looking for Art Deco gems. My initial search online didn’t yield much. But I was meeting a buddy for lunch, who was in town on a business trip from Manhattan, and I knew there just had to be some great buildings worth photographing. The East Village Arts District had three amazing buildings across from one another, including the Lafayette. And the First Baptist Church, located on Pine Avenue, is on the eastern border of a ‘transitional’ neighborhood that’s clearly undergoing gentrification. In hindsight it would make sense to head to the older areas of town to find structures built in the 20’s and 30’s. I just had to remind myself to be patient and not lean on the horn for any reason… wouldn’t want to end up with a ‘cap in my ass’.
The one element of the church spire that really grabbed my attention, was the black disks near the top. They make me think of the May Company Building with it’s massive gold cylinder on Wilshire Boulevard, in LA’s Miracle Mile. It’s such a specific design feature whose rarity makes it unforgettable. And while we’re on the top of specific design elements, take a close look at rooflines of each of the buildings. They each have a very different silhouette, yet all of them fall into the design category of Art Deco. The vertical bands on each of the buildings also helps identify the deco period. The zig zag patterns in the plaster reliefs are hallmarks of 1920’s Art Deco, while the bright pastel tones of the structure with the street corner cylinder make me think of Florida’s Tropical Art Deco, done in the Streamline Moderne style.
You might be wondering why I chose to include the Queen Mary as my opening image for this series, but when I think Art Deco and LongBeach, she’s what comes to mind first. And what has a stronger silhouette than those three smoke stacks, tilted slightly backwards. She looks like she’s moving, even when she’s standing still, exemplifying the spirit of deco. Planes, Trains, Cars, Steamships… it was all about the new found glamour of travel and how quickly we could get from one place to another after we evolved from the horse drawn carriage.
And a little FYI, the first 30 minutes of parking at the Queen Mary in the Port of LongBeach are free. I didn’t exactly know that when I took the ticket to get into their parking lot. I just knew I wasn’t leaving town without a good shot of her, and if that meant paying for parking, so be it. I was planning on making the argument of being lost and needing to turn around… I guess I’m not the only one who’s done that. Art Deco will be turning 100 in a few years, and I predict you’ll be reading a lot more about that period in the coming years.