Susanna McLeod
Special to Canadian Design and Construction Report
Bold geometric shapes, sleek glamour, and excitement took on an architectural flavour after the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes in Paris, France in 1925. Attended by millions of visitors, the Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts ran from late April until early November, featuring the latest in modernity. An international architectural style emerged, known as Art Deco.
“It was a new style for a new modern era,” stated Canada’s Historic Places. (CHP) Combining simplicity of design with high-grade materials, Art Deco frequently applied geometric angles such as zigzags and vee-shapes. “Other characteristics of Art Deco include: sunbursts, sweeping curves, ziggurats (staggered or tiered pyramid shapes),” and added “a liberal use of sleek-looking material, as well as Egyptian influences and motifs focusing on birds and floral patterns.”
Art Deco emerged in an era of vibrant cultural change in the 1920s. Automakers were building vehicles for the masses; cars and trucks were complemented by service stations along newly-created streets and highways. Electricity became available for homes and businesses across the country. Families enjoyed innovative appliances—washing machines, toasters, vacuum cleaners, and radios playing music, stories, and mystery broadcasts. (Encased in big wooden cabinets, home television sets were still a couple of decades away.) The Roaring Twenties danced with prosperity, bursting with enthusiasm about the future, and inspiring a revolution in traditions. Across Ontario, a number of architects expressed the enthusiasm by designing Art Deco homes, and government and commercial buildings.
A structure’s purpose, such as a retail location or a courtroom, may suggest sober conformity. However, the architects for Ottawa’s Supreme Court Building and for Maple Leaf Gardens arena in Toronto injected the styles of the time. Designed by Ernest Cormier in mid-1930s, the Supreme Court in Ottawa “is characterized by its extensive use of geometric shapes and a mixture of crisp lines and smooth, flowing curves,” said CHP.
Managing hockey club director Conn Smythe commissioned the prominent firm of Ross & Macdonald of Montreal, along with associate architects Jack Ryrie and Mackenzie Waters, to plan an arena. Smythe’s goal was to increase his hockey club’s revenue with over 12,000 seats for fans, according to Peter D. Ellsworth in “The house that Conn built: why and how Maple Leaf Gardens was built and the impact its construction had on Toronto and professional hockey,” MA Thesis, University of Guelph, July 2005.
Constructed in 1931, Toronto Maple Leafs arena reflected fans’ passion with the Art Deco symmetrical façade in yellow brick and a unique dome roof. The Gardens also featured “simple brickwork pattern” within the arena, “and use of metal along the building’s patterned window arrangement.” Humorous nicknames emerged, from “Puckingham Palace” to “Taj Ma Hockey.”
Architect Charles Dolphin was one of several Canadian professionals to infuse Art Deco designs with nature themes. In 1939, he “included beavers—nibbling on tree stumps and interspersed with maple leaves and bulrushes—in the bas-relief cornice on the Toronto Postal Delivery Terminal,” according to Tim Morawetz in “The Decorative Language of Canadian Art Deco Architecture” (Art Deco Society of New York).
Inspired by Canadian decorative themes in the late 1920s, architect John MacIntosh Lyle (1872-1945) gathered “data in the forms of Canadian flowers, fruits, trees, birds, animals, grains, marine life and Indian motifs,” described Morawetz. Lyle’s mission was to “create a new language [of decorative ornament] based on Canadian forms, the only criteria being that any form had to pass the test of beauty.” The architect’s engaging architectural plans were constructed across the country.
Ross & McDonald produced an appealing Art Deco interior at Eaton’s 7th floor in 1930, considered one of the “most outstanding Art Deco interiors in Canada,” stated Parks Canada Directory of Federal Heritage Designations. The retailer’s Auditorium and Round Room were opulently designed by French architect Jacques Carlu and Quebec’s interior designer René Cera.
“Bands of white flashed opal glass lighting, geometric Monel metal and bronze finished, and black Vitrolite create flowing, curvilinear spaces,” described CHP. The round room was enhanced by a fountain and elegant glass chandelier that evoked “the age of radio and epitomize the contemporary style.” Opened in 1931, Eaton’s 7th Floor Auditorium “was a unique venue for important national and local artistic and cultural events” for nearly 40 years. Closed in 1970, the space was elegantly restored between 2000 and 2003 and is now The Carlu.
Making a comeback, Art Deco style can be found in furniture with curvy arms and backs. It is in jewel-tone wall colours, lustrous bathroom and kitchen interpretations, geometric forms, and luxurious materials. Older buildings are being restored with the historical flavour of Art Deco in mind, such as the Hermant by Toronto architectural firm Giaimo.
Polish your good shoes, find radio music on the dial from the 1920s and 1930s, and shimmy into the vibrant, joyful Art Deco architecture.
Susanna McLeod is a writer specializing in Canadian history.
