Tired of all the media buzz about the economy and its doldrums? Want a touch of glamor in your life? Why not revisit ART DECO?

Elegant and glamorous, ART DECO style is commonly said to have been most influential from around 1910 until the outbreak of World War II. While it originated in France, ART DECO became a worldwide trend, affecting all areas of design throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Purely decorative, the eclectic style shaped architecture and industrial design, as well as painting, the graphic arts, and film.

ART DECO’s popularity peaked in Europe during the Roaring Twenties, but continued strongly in the United States throughout the 1930s. Interestingly, the term ART DECO only came into popular use in the 1960s.

ART DECO influences include the art of Babylon, Assyria, Ancient Egypt, and Aztec Mexico. It also drew on the Machine Age and streamline technologies like modern aviation, electric lighting, the radio, the ocean liner, and the skyscraper.

Surviving examples of ART DECO architecture can be seen in many different locations worldwide. Look for it in bridges, skyscrapers, theaters, and train stations. Here are just a few ART DECO CITIES that you might want to visit.

1. NEW YORK CITY: The Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building are two of the largest and best known examples of the style.
2. MIAMI BEACH: Miami is home to some thirty blocks of hotels and apartment houses dating from the 1920s t0 the 1940s. In 1979, the Art Deco Historic District of Miami Beach was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Nearly all the buildings have been carefully restored and painted in their original pastel colors.
3. LOS ANGELES: LA is rich in Art Deco architecture, particularly along Wiltshire Boulevard, a main thoroughfare that experienced a building boom in the 1920s. Notable examples include the Bullocks Wiltshire and Pellissier Building, and the Wiltern Theater.
4. SHANGHAI: At least sixty buildings designed by the Hungarian architect Laszlo Hudec survive in downtown Shanghai. Many of these are Art Deco.
5. CUBA: Havana is home to some of the finest surviving examples of Art Deco art and architecture. The Bacardi Building is particularly noteworthy. The style is expressed in the architecture of residences, businesses, hotels, and in the many pieces of decorative art, furniture, and utensils found in public buildings. Art Deco furnishings also found in many private homes.
6. NEW ZEALAND: Napier was rebuilt in the Art Deco style after being destroyed by earthquake in 1931. It is the world’s most thoroughly Art Deco city. Napier has been nominated for UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
7. INDIA: Mumbai has the second largest number of Art Deco buildings in the world after Miami.
8. BRAZIL: Art Deco architecture can be found in Goiania as well as in cities like Cipo, Irai, and Rio de Janeiro — especially in the Copacabana. It is also seen in the Brazilian Northeast. The style is widespread in Brazil due to the fast growth and rapid economic changes in the country during the period from 1930-1940.
9. POLAND: After a very successful participation in the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs, the Polish Government adopted the Art Deco style as the National Style.  Two whole cities – the port of Gdynia (1926) and the industrial city of Stalowa Wola (1936) were laid out and built as Art Deco cities.  They sustained little wartime damage.
10. AFRICA: Africa’s most celebrated examples of Art Deco were built in Eritrea during Italian rule. Many buildings survive in Asmara, the capital. There are also many buildings in Casablanca. Cities in South Africa also contain examples of Art Deco design.

How do you decide on a list of the world’s truly great places? Well, that’s easy. Why not let UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee do the deciding for you?

The idea for a World Heritage List was first discussed in the late 1950s when the Abu Simbel temples in Egypt were threatened by the construction of the Aswan High Dam. UNESCO launched a worldwide campaign and raised $40 million of the $80 million cost for the project from 50 countries. This allowed the Abu Simbel and Philae Temples to be taken apart, moved to a higher location, and put back together piece by piece. The project was considered a success and led to other safeguarding campaigns in Venice, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

The World Heritage Committee was officially established by the United Nations in 1972 as part of the Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage. As of 2009, 890 World Heritage sites are listed: 689 culural, 176 natural, and 25 mixed properties.

Just what does World Heritage mean?

Each location listed is considered to be unique and of such universal value for all mankind that it should be safeguarded as testimony to an enduring past.

Sites are required to meet at least one of the following 10 criteria:

Cultural Criteria

• represent a masterpiece of human creative genius

• exhibit an important interchange of human values over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town planning or landscape design

• bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared

• be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land use, or sea use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change

• be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance

Natural criteria

• contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance

• be outstanding examples representing major stages of Earth’s history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features

• be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals

• contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-site conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

Once a place is inscribed on the World Heritage list it benefits from media attention and increased tourist revenue. It also becomes eligible for a piece of UNESCO’s preservation fund.

If you’re interested in World Heritage sites, you’re definitely going to want to take a look at Google’s Street View. Google has formed a global alliance with UNESCO to put imagery of selected sites into Street View. For more information, take a look at the video below. Nineteen sites including places in the Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom are already on view. More are soon to come. Visit the microsite to learn more.

You also will want to check out this drop dead gorgeous site: http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/introduction.html When you reach the site, just click on “world map” and start playing. It is really beautiful!

Posted by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe.