a building used by visitors who pay for temporary dwelling
Horizontal bands are the main decorative feature
The Royal Exchange Hotel in Sydney be found in the city’s Marrickville district, a suburb in the inner west of Sydney. Located on a corner lot, it features period lettering around the top spelling out the name, and a parapet with horizontal and vertical decorative bands.
The parapet on the corner
The 1937 Hotel Waterloo was designed by the Wellington firm of Atkins and Mitchell and was constructed for New Zealand Breweries company who wanted a luxurious, modern look. The location at 28 Waterloo Quay was close to the Wellington train station and to the ferry terminal, a strategic placing for travellers who would appreciate its fine bars. After fifty odd years of service it shut its doors in the late 1980s for a few years, only to be reborn as a backpackers’ hostel. The bands of decorative motifs consisting of chevron forms and semi-circles are still distinctive. Thanks again to Taika Kyriak for providing these photos.
The Bank Hotel in Sydney can be found at 324 King Street in Newtown, a short walk from the Newtown train station. Currently found solely in beige, it nonetheless features some fine Art Deco detailing on its upper façade, in particular the upper centre zig-zag row of chevrons linked by curves and pleating. Inside there are four different bars to drink in. Thanks again to Keith Barrett for the photos.
The Eden Teatro, or Eden Theatre, sits on the Praça dos Restauradores in central Lisbon, and is one of Lisbon’s most spectacular cinema buildings, showing films up until 1989. Cassiano Branco and Carlo Florencio Dias were the architects responsible for this Art Deco palace, which opened in 1931. The building features a magnificent, creamy pink coloured marble façade and a floating stone frieze across the top. There is also an abundance of geometric fenestration throughout. The interior was altered when it was converted into an apart-hotel complex in 2001.
This building, the former Royal Edward Hotel, was probably constructed in the early 1930s. It closed at some time in 1997-8. The old hotel has been converted into residential units but has maintained all of its exterior Art Deco features. These include the lettering running along the top which spells out the name of the hotel, and the chevron and hemisphere devices on either side of this. There are other chevron devices between the second and third floor windows on either side of the corner. Thanks once again to Keith Barrett for the photos.
This building sits on a corner lot with its main façade on Calle Barcelonina in the San Francisco area of Valencia. Its original name was the Martí Alegre building and it was designed by the architect Javier Goerlich Lleó. A ten-storey edifice, it was constructed from 1934-1941, and curves around the ground floor, and the six above it, then stepping in with those above. It later enjoyed the name of Hotel Londres for many years before becoming part of the Casual Hoteles group.
The Victoria Hotel was designed by the tremendously talented architect Cassiano Viriato Branco, who also designed other landmark, mid-war buildings in Lisbon such as the Teatro Éden. Work began in 1934 on the project and it was completed in 1936, though this was only part of the architect’s concept.
The building had a number of features, including a facing of pink marble, but the most eye-catching one was certainly the circular balconies stacked along the corner of the six-storey building. These were cleverly echoed with a round porch projecting out above the entrance.
By the mid 1970s the hotel had become run down and neglected which engendered an attempt to revive it. Nothing came of this in the end and the building was bought in 1985 by the Lisbon branch of the Portuguese Communist Party, and it remains their regional headquarters.
Coimbra is Portugal’s university city, and is found a little north of the centre of the country. The Hotel Mondego is situated on the Largo das Ameias in central Coimbra. It has a set of neatly curving balconies and railings on its upper façade.
Global Art Deco 