Art Deco

Art Deco architecture marked a bold transition from classic revival to modernism, emphasizing straight lines, mass production, geometric spaces, metal, concrete, and stone. Early Art Deco retained the nature motifs of Art Nouveau, as shown in Kalamazoo City Hall and the American National Bank Building, while the later style stressed streamlined structures such as the Speareflex office building and the Alexander Medical Office. The American National Bank Building, designed by Weary and Alford and built in 1929-30, is a fifteen-story Indiana limestone building and Kalamazoo's finest example of the style, with upper-floor exterior lighting intended to create a towering fountain of light visible for many miles, along with decorative exterior metalwork and a painted ceiling inside. The Kalamazoo County Building, finished in 1937 at 227 West Michigan, was designed by local architect M.C.J. Billingham and partly funded by the Public Works Administration; its Mankato stone exterior has stylized metal details beneath the windows, and reliefs of Law, Justice, and Vigilance carved by Coronado Joseph Parducci surround the entrances, while unique light fixtures and brass grills adorn marble hallways. Kalamazoo City Hall, built in 1933 at 241 West South Street and also designed by Weary and Alford, combined a classic form with modern ornament to represent Art Deco's transition to modernism, with a frieze of relief carvings depicting important events in Kalamazoo's history and nature motifs decorating the three-story atrium and the ceiling painting in Commission Chambers.

Kalamazoo, Michigan · United States