Hello Travelers. Today, I am going to be talking about the famous (and rightly so) Hoover Dam in Boulder, Nevada/Arizona! I visited this American icon earlier this June, and I was taken aback by how…stunning and mind-blowing this structure was. I honestly couldn’t imagine workers (i.e. from the Civilian Conservation Corp) during the Great Depression building this concrete mammoth. However, the dam was dedicated in 1935 by FDR, and the new bypass that spans the two canyons was recently constructed in 2010. I am going to be talking about the Art Deco aspects of Hoover Dam, and how such a prolific art style can still be applied to an industrialized piece of technology.
     First, the Art Deco style flourished during the 1920-1940s in the United States and abroad; the most famous building in this style is the Chrysler Building in New York City. As for Hoover Dam, architects complained that the initial Gothic Revival design was too harsh and antiquated. Remember, the America that built this dam was just emerging from the booming post War 1920s, and the new modern styles emerging during this time seemed fitting for such a new and insurmountable task. The lead architect for transforming a clunky water barrier to an ultra-chic dam was Gordon B. Kaufmann. Just for a background on the specific Art Deco style, its origins were in an arts and craft movement that began in Paris. It usually features geometric shapes, symmetry, streamlined edges, bright colors, rounded edges, and lines that go straight up to meet the sky. It screams modern like nothing else, especially the industrial materials and flashy graphic writing.

       The first Art Deco element that one sees crossing the gray bridge over the dam is the doors that conceal the bathrooms and elevators. Besides being an ornate and flashy gold (America is trying to say that it has power and money even though this was built during the Great Depression), the lettering next to the doors is blocky, bold, and so “1920s night club in New York City.” By this, I mean the alternating thick and thin strokes, like industrialized print calligraphy. Over these posh doors are carved reliefs stacked on top of each other. Although I could not clearly make out the imagery, I could definitely see geometric shapes, stylized characters, and sharp angles. Also, the lines of the block panel on which the reliefs are carved into go straight up, stretching towards the gauzy clouds. The block lettering was displayed prominently throughout the dam, from the labels that declared the two chunky clocks “Arizona” and “Nevada” to the building labeled as an “exhibit.” The lettering especially reminded me of the Great Gatsby, and I half expected Jay Gatz to waltz out from the intake towers any time. Speaking of the intake towers (the huge sentinels in the front of the dam that face the bi-colored rocks of Lake Mead), they are also characteristically Art Deco. Their thick lines go straight up, making them look incredibly linear and space-like.
       Next, there were several bronze (and other industrial material) sculptures that adorned the stylish dam. The first was a panel (repousse looking) that read “They Died to Make the Desert Bloom.” It depicts the poignant image of a half naked man lifting wheat and other agricultural products above his shoulders. This is a monument to the 112 men who died creating the dam to make the surrounding area safe for all the residents and farmers. The Norwegian artist (Oskar J. W. Hansen) included the wheat because it symbolized agriculture; the fields of farmers in the West would now not be flooded because the forces of nature were controlled by man with a concrete fist. This is Art Deco because (1) the man is geometric looking (i.e. his square torso and circular arm muscles), (2) the water surrounding him like a blanket is incredibly stylized (broken into separate planes), and (3) there is a juxtaposition between the thick lines traveling upwards towards the sky and the rounded horizontal band behind the laborer. I find this plaque particularly moving because of the expression on the man’s face. It is hardened yet encouraging because he knows that his sacrifice was not in vain. The second sculpture I would like briefly mention is “High Scaler” by Steven Liguori, an artist who created the work in 2000 to honor the builders of the dam. Visit his neat website here. Interestingly, this Las Vegas native has also created another bronze work entitled “Miss Atomic Bomb.” See this rather disturbing sculpture here. 

One of the Winged Figures