All About: Art Deco style in the San Francisco Bay Area
Here are a few of our favorite Art Deco architectural highlights, in the Bay Area.
The Berkeley City Club
The indoor pool is seen at the Berkeley City Club in Berkeley, Calif. The Gothic-style building, designed by famed architect Julia Morgan in 1929, was originally built for the Berkeley Women’s City Club.
Architect: Julia Morgan/2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704
Berkeley Public Library
Berkeley Public Library opened in 1893 on Shattuck Avenue with 264 books. In 1905, the library moved to a new brick building on Shattuck Avenue at 2090 Kittredge Street. The new library was funded by Andrew Carnegie and built on land donated by Rosa M. Shattuck, the widow of Francis K. Shattuck.
Architect, John Galen Howard/ 2090 Kittredge St Berkeley CA 94704
The Paramount Theatre – Oakland, CA
Paramount Theatre – Oakland
The Paramount Theatre is a 3,040-seat Art Deco concert hall located at 2025 Broadway in Downtown, Oakland. When it was built in 1931, it was the largest multi-purpose theater on the West Coast. Today, the Paramount is the home of the Oakland East Bay Symphony and the Oakland Ballet, it regularly plays host to R&B, jazz, blues, pop, rock, gospel, classical music, as well as ballets, plays, stand-up comedy, lecture series, special events, and screenings of classic movies from Hollywood’s Golden Era.
Architects: Timothy Pfluger and James Miller/2025 Broadway, Oakland, CA
The Marin County Civic Center
The Marin County Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is located in San Rafael.Ca. Groundbreaking for the Civic Center Administration Building took place in 1960, after Wright’s death, and under the watch of Wright’s protégé, Aaron Green; it was completed in 1962. The Hall of Justice was begun in 1966 and completed in 1969. Veterans Memorial Auditorium opened in 1971, and the Exhibit Hall opened in 1976.
Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright/ 3501 Civic Center Dr, San Rafael, CA 94903
450 Sutter Street, San Francisco, Ca
450 Sutter is a twenty-six-floor skyscraper in San Francisco, California, completed in 1929. The tower is known for its “Neo-Mayan” Art Deco design by architect Timothy L. Pflueger. The building’s tenants are largely dental and medical professional offices.
Coit Tower, San Francisco, CA
Coit Tower is a 210-foot tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, offering panoramic views over the city and the bay. The tower, in the city’s Pioneer Park, was built between 1932 and 1933 using Lillie Hitchcock Coit‘s bequest to beautify the city of San Francisco. The art deco tower, built of unpainted reinforced concrete, was designed by architects Arthur Brown, Jr. and Henry Howard. The interior features fresco murals in the American Social Realism style, painted by 25 different onsite artists and their numerous assistants.
Architects: Arthur Brown, Jr, and Henry Howard/1Telegraph Hill Blvd, San Francisco, CA.
V.C. Morris Gift Shop, San Francisco, CA
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. It is the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco and California. It was initially designed by engineer Joseph Strauss in 1917. It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The Frommer’s travel guide describes the Golden Gate Bridge as “possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world.
