The Streamline Moderne Movement vs. Art Deco

If you’ve flown through New York City’s LaGuardia Airport and have arrived at the Marine Terminal, you might have stopped to admire the striking architectural conversation between geometric forms that comprise the façade. This compelling landmark is the product of the Streamline Moderne style that dominated the American landscape in the 1930s and 1940s. 

International design in the early decades of the 20th century was often tied to the modern machine age. In that period, new technologies gave way to a vision for the future, and their designs abandoned the excessive embellishments of earlier design movements. Instead they embraced forms that exalted efficiency and aerodynamics. This new way of thinking formed the foundation of Art Deco, a movement whose clean lines and geometric ornament are universally recognizable. 

Browse Streamline Moderne coming to auction

A closer study of the Art Deco movement, however, reveals that the style evolved over time to produce sub-movements that responded to different design trends. One of the most fascinating of these sub-movements was that of the Streamline Moderne which, though closely allied with Art Deco ideas, also can be differentiated from it. To help navigate these nuances, this article dives into the Streamline Moderne movement of the Art Deco era, highlighting some of the style’s key characteristics and sharing some essential examples and makers that helped to spread its popularity. 

Introduction to Streamline Moderne

As the 19th century came to a close, artists, architects, and product designers around the world were on the hunt for design’s next direction. From their perspective, the excessive ornament of Victorian design and the more embellished aspects of Art Nouveau aesthetics were out of date. In their place, early 20th-century innovators, like Walter Gropius and his Bauhaus colleagues as well as Theo van Doesburg and his fellow DeStijl designers began to experiment with streamlined forms. Central to their novel approach was removing unnecessary frills, working with rudimentary shapes, and emphasizing the function alongside the aesthetics of an object or space. 

These smooth, sleek shapes helped to inspire the Art Deco movement, which emerged in France on the heels of these earlier designers. The style, which celebrated streamlined forms and clean surfaces, grew rapidly in popularity as it offered a profile wholly different from that seen in the previous generation. As a result, the growth of Art Deco demand was exponential. The Art Deco aesthetic swept European design across the 1920s, and in the 1930s it reached the United States with similar success.

Complicating Art Deco’s reception, though, was the simultaneous impact of the Great Depression. In a period of such hardship, the language of the Art Deco was absorbed into American studios but in a subdued manner. Upholding Art Deco principles, while eliminating extraneous decoration and ornament to optimize efficiency and economy, the Streamline Moderne style was born.

Key Identifiers of Streamline Moderne Style

Streamline Moderne is often considered the final phase or continuation of the Art Deco era and, accordingly, Art Deco and Streamline Moderne design principles overlap in many ways. For example, both approaches share in their reliance on simple sophistication and a sleek sense of modernity. Streamline Moderne also used much of the visual vocabulary of Art Deco design, including smooth planes, curved lines, and geometric simplicity. That said, the Streamline Moderne style can be distinguished from its parent Art Deco movement. These distinctions include: 

Industrial Aesthetic

Streamline Moderne stands apart from Art Deco in that there tends to be an increased emphasis on industrial sensibilities in the former’s works. The profiles of Streamline Moderne projects, for example, tend to take on even more simplified contours to heighten the sense of the utility or universality of its function. 

Modest Materials 

Typically accentuating this industrial aesthetic was the incorporation of materials typical of a machine-oriented space. Bent metal tubing, synthetic materials, or Bakelite plastic components became the core of many Streamline Moderne styles. While these materials recalled an industrial feel, they also helped to make Streamline Moderne pieces more affordable. Art Deco design often indulged in more expensive materials, from elegant ebony or richly veined marble accents. In contrast, Streamline Moderne’s works cut some of these costs by using less expensive components to bring modernist design to a cash-strapped country. 

Omitted Ornamentation 

To achieve this ultimate streamlined design, Streamline Modern design limited additional ornamentation or colorful decoration applied to their projects. Eliminating these elements helped to underscore the aerodynamic sense of Streamline Moderne design while also again responding to the tightened constraints of a struggling American economy.

Browse Streamline Moderne coming to auction

Streamline Moderne Makers and Examples

By the mid-1930s, the Streamline Moderne dominated all aspects of design. Audiences at some of the era’s most magnificent expositions, from the Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago (1933-1934) to the San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition (1939) were treated to Streamline Moderne showcases that helped to boost the spread and popularity of the style. Soon elements of the Streamline Moderne filtered into all aspects of modern life, some of which we highlight here. 

Streamline Moderne Transportation

Some of the more prominent Streamline Moderne examples hailed from modern transportation. For example, the seductively slick J-3a Super Hudson steam locomotive of the New York Central Hudson line that debuted at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York showcased a rounded fuselage and streamlined profile to accentuate its aerodynamics as symbolic of a new era of speedy travel. 

The same could be said of the SS Normandie, a French passenger ship christened in 1935. Designed by Pierre Patout, one of the founders of the Art Deco school, the new age ship featured streamlined design both on its exterior and within its interiors, like its dining room that was on the one hand sleek yet also boasted splendid glass pillars designed by René Lalique that would have illuminated the space with glowing light. The Streamline Moderne sensibilities even made it to American roadways, with leading automobile manufacturers adopting the sleek sensibilities into their car profiles. These vehicles helped to spread the aesthetic of Streamline Moderne design to the international stage such that eventually even iconic maker Ferrari got into the trend. 

Streamline Moderne Architecture

Complementing these transit titans were examples of Streamline Moderne architecture that began to pop up across the country. As we noted at the beginning, one of the most recognizable might be the Marine Terminal of LaGuardia Airport, which was built in 1939 and featured neat, intersection geometric forms both artful and practical to serve as an essential aviation hub. Other transportation depots absorbed the Streamline Moderne style – for example, the 1937 Greyhound Station of Blytheville, Arkansas, or the Las Vegas Union Pacific Railroad Station. Streamline Moderne architecture also filtered in the design of entertainment complexes, like Los Angeles’ Pan-Pacific Stadium or the NBC Hollywood Studios. 

Streamline Moderne Furniture and Decorative Arts

The Streamline Moderne also began to appear in daily life via Streamline Moderne furnishings. Makers like Kem Weber helped to define this new minimalist language for home decor ranging from sideboards to armchairs that often incorporated industrial elements like plated steel or synthetic upholstery. Famed Berlin-born Art Deco designer Paul Frankl also turned to the Streamline Moderne aesthetic in many of his furniture pieces designed to allude to speed or efficiency. 

Sustaining The Legacy of the Streamline Moderne 

While the Streamline Moderne style is often positioned as the final phase of Art Deco’s development, one could argue that its evolution proved essential to the enduring popularity of Art Deco ideas across art and architecture. Eliminating nonessential ornament and further simplifying forms meant that Streamline Moderne creations could be both cost-effective and reflective of cutting-edge tastes. In a period when such economy was paramount, the Streamline Moderne responded to these demands while also nodding to the prospects of the future beyond the struggles of the Great Depression era. These sleek lines continue to captivate designers and collectors today, suggesting that the energy explored in the 1930s Streamline Moderne is still alive and well today.  

Browse Streamline Moderne coming to auction

Streamline Moderne at Auction

If you’re interested in adding some Streamline Moderne to your collection, follow these artists and makers to be alerted when their works come to auction:

Norman Bel Geddes | Raymond Loewy | Henry Dreyfuss | Walter Dorwin Teague | Russel Wright | Kem Weber | Paul Frankl | Pierre Patout | Alfonso Iannelli | Gilbert Rohde