STREAMLINE

Streamline Moderne

American design underwent an enormous transformation in the 1930s. Inspired by technology and a fascination with the machine, Streamline Moderne was a rigorously modern aesthetic that emphasized speed and efficiency. Shedding the eclecticism of Victorianism and its ornate designs, historicism, and cluttered aesthetic, Streamline Moderne marked a radicalization of design.

Modernism in Motion

The most popular and influential source of the new aesthetic was the Zephyr high-speed train. First designed by engineer Edward G. Budd, the stainless steel, lightweight 1932 Zephyr translated the aerodynamic principles of modern airplanes to ground transportation. The Zephyr's smooth curves, rounded corners, and powerful diesel engines replaced the older square steel and wooden trains. This generation of high-speed trains, which also included the Super Chief and the M-10001, reached speeds of 120 miles per hour while using a fraction of the fuel consumed by earlier trains. With their speed and efficiency, trains such as the Zephyr embodied the future and futuristic longings for wealth and a society freed from scarcity.

From Trains to Cars

Budd first applied his stainless-steel designs to automobiles and throughout the 1920s worked for Nash Motors. His steel-bodied cars were unique in an industry that preferred wood. By the 1930s the use of stainless steel in automobiles was widespread. The ease with which steel could be shaped helped transform the look of modern cars. With their curved fenders, rounded hoods, and long, sleek shapes, the newest generation of cars in the 1930s adopted the look Budd made popular with the Zephyr.

Architecture

Streamline Moderne architecture also utilized the symbolism of speed and efficiency popularized by fast motorcars, airplanes, and trains. Many architects incorporated mechanically perfect curves at the corners of buildings, cylindrical helix stairs, circular windows, and spherical knobs into their buildings. The Philadelphia Savings Fund Society building was one of the first and most exciting examples of Streamline Moderne architecture. Designed by George Howe in 1932, it was one of the first skyscrapers to use ribbon windows that folded around the corners of the building. This sky-scraper solved a chronic problem of tall buildings: how to make the towering surface planes pleasing to the eye. Taking inspiration from the machine, Howe's answer was minimalist. The giant building's ornamentation was sculptural and formal: by means of sharp, thin detailing, the masonry veneer of polished granite, limestone, and smooth brick appeared as a continuous skin. Together with the curving bands of windows, this gave it the appearance of texture and motion.

Popularizing the New Look

The Streamline Moderne style appeared not only in high-rises in New York and Chicago but in gas stations and restaurants. Corporations hired industrial designers and architects to prepare prototypes for their roadside outlets, and the idiom trickled down to mom-and-pop outfits. Do-it-yourself magazines and trade journals offered handymen advice on streamlining their buildings. By the late 1930s everything from hot-dog stands to motor courts sported smooth surfaces and rounded corners.

Sources:

Chester H. Liebs, Main Street to Miracle Mile: American Roadside Architecture (Boston: Little, Brown, 1985);

Marcus Whiffen and Frederick Koeper, American Architecture 1607-1976 (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1981).

stream·line / ˈstrēmˌlīn/ • v. [tr.] [usu. as adj.] (streamlined) design or provide with a form that presents very little resistance to a flow of air or water, increasing speed and ease of movement: streamlined passenger trains. ∎ fig. make (an organization or system) more efficient and effective by employing faster or simpler working methods: the company streamlined its operations by removing whole layers of management. • n. a line along which the flow of a moving fluid is least turbulent. • adj. 1. (of fluid flow) free from turbulence. 2. dated having a streamlined shape: a streamline airplane.

streamline path of a fluid flowing steadily and without appreciable turbulence. A body is said to be streamlined if its shape offers the least possible resistance to a current of air, water, or other fluid. The current that a streamlined body breaks simply reunites in its wake, as contrasted with the retarding eddies and turbulence created by the partial vacuum in the wake of a nonstreamlined body. The streamline design is typically a long ellipse tapering to a point in the direction of flow; it is illustrated in the cross section of an airplane wing and in the bodies of fishes and birds. Vehicles such as automobiles, aircraft, railroad cars, and boats are designed to provide maximum streamline.

streamline
1. In a flowing fluid, a hypothetical line which indicates the local direction of flow. See also HYDRAULIC GRADIENT; and POTENTIOMETRIC SURFACE.

2. A shape which allows a body to offer minimum resistance to a fluid through which it moves; to impart such a shape to a body.

streamline
1. In a flowing fluid, a hypothetical line which indicates the local direction of flow.

2. A shape which allows a body to offer minimum resistance to a fluid through which it moves; to impart such a shape to a body.

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