Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Ride through vintage US with Greyhound

2014 is the 100th anniversary of Greyhound Lines company. Celebrative articles on the Web and on magazines mostly show the famous buses, of course. I want to remember a different feature of that company history: Greyhound bus stations have been and are outstanding landmarks of Streamline style. Together with motels, gas stations, garages, drugstores, cafes and diners, they have been icons of the "roadside architecture" that featured the popular image of US worldwide, even through countless movies' scenes. 
My madness for Art Deco and Streamline made me plan to create 3D models of them, and to show them in SL.
For now, I show here below a little collection of  pretty 1930s-1950s Greyhound stations postcards found on the Web (I added also some photos of terminals not portrayed on postcards). They show typical features of Streamline style: horizontal shapes, round corners, towers, large windows, tiles, bright colors, chrome moldings, big signs.
They are a very meaningful example of the original American development of Art Deco style, due to the imagination of architects and designers who answered to the "need of future" so widespread since the difficult times of the 1930s. Even more than great buildings, these places - that people frequented daily - deeply marked collective imaginary.


 (click on pics for a better view)
 
Further infos about Greyhound history:



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