April 20, 2024

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Owning art deco: Bring Tulsa’s rich design history into your home | Home & Garden

Oxford is known for its Gothic Revival architecture. Tel Aviv stands out for its Bauhaus constructions. If you visit Budapest, you’ll be met with some of the best examples of art nouveau design in existence.

But what puts Tulsa on par with these major world cities? Art deco.

Tulsa is world-renowned for its art deco architecture. Conceived in Paris in 1925 and realized in the United States in the ‘30s, art deco, also called art moderne, is an architectural style known for its emphasis on elegant and sleek designs signifying wealth, status and sophistication.

While the best of Tulsa’s classic art deco constructions can be seen at places such as Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, Will Rogers High School and the Oklahoma Natural Gas Building, experts say some elements of art deco — clean lines, geometric shapes, rich colors — are reemerging in modern interior home design.

“I think people like art deco because it bridges contemporary and classical styles,” William Franklin, founder of Decopolis, Tulsa’s art deco museum, said. “It can be very simple and geometric or very ornate at the same time. One of the most fascinating things is when I find (art deco) stuff that was made almost 100 years ago but it still looks like it could be in a modern art gallery today.”

Origins of art deco