The Earthquake of 1931

AN ARTFUL DESIGN
The Finest Art Deco in Napier, New Zealand
By Susan Storm

Aptly named The Land Of The Long White Cloud, New Zealand is a geologically new land bubbling with geothermal mayhem. The skies are always busy - busy with sun, fast moving clouds, snow, rain, sleet, rainbows, ice and wind.

Glaciers still encroach here: wild rivers map the landscape, and volcanic activity and its resulting sulphur pools and geysers are great tourist attractions. And there are earthquakes that have a habit of rearranging people's lives.

Hawke's Bay is a scenic and fertile stretch of coast rich in bird and marine life, sighted by Captain Cook in 1769. Almost a century later, whalers began to use the safe anchorage and established a trading base. This commercial centre flourished and became the Victorian city of Napier, named after their British General and colonial administrator, Sir Charles Napier. 

Napier boasted substantial and imposing buildings. They were designed in a variety of architectural styles from Italian Renaissance and Victorian to Spanish Mission. There were municipal baths, theatres large enough to seat 1500 people, many churches, hotels that were massive for the times and menÕs private clubs, as well as large department stores.

The town was booming. It seemed nothing could go wrong. 

Then, on February 3 in 1931 Napier and Hastings were rocked by an earthquake that measured 7.9 on the Richter Scale. The city was flattened. Hundreds of people were killed. Napier was tossed two metres higher, and what the earthquake didn't crumble, the resulting fires gutted. 

For two frantic years, between 1931 and 1933, even though the world was in the grip of the Great Depression, the residents bravely rebuilt Napier. They decided to rebuild in the Art Deco style. 

Few cities, have the opportunity to be wholly redesigned with cohesion in relation to scale, material and style. Napier was, and now represents the most complete and significant group of Art Deco buildings in the world. 

Art Deco is the name given to the decorative style which stunned the world at the International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris 1925. Symbolising the spirit of the 20th Century, it was characterised by three important new ideas - the development of science, technology and the machine; the increasing independence of women; and the overthrow of old conventions. These beliefs were embodied in the favourite motifs of the style - the geometric, angular patterns and shapes: the symbols of speed and power such as the zig zag of lightning flashes, symbols of freedom and the dawn of a new age - leaping deer and greyhounds, dancing women, and the popular rising sun. The stepped silhouette , associated with New York's skyscrapers as they step back to allow sunlight to reach the street, easily identifies the style.

Unlike styles of the past which tended to take their inspiration from natural forms, The Art Deco designers gloried the machine and looked to science for their bright new future. This optimism was also reflected in the frenetic pace of life during the boom of the 1920’s. After the wall street crash of 1929, everything changed. The Depression hit and simplicity was needed because either people could not afford ostentation or it was not to be seen. Manufacturers needed a new look to tempt reluctant buyers. The Art Deco of the thirties, called "Streamline Moderne", with its rounded shapes and stationary objects that looked as if they were moving at great speed, became popular.

Many critics feel that Art Deco is brash, or vulgar, but it must be admitted that it is original and innovative, expressing the confidence, vigour and optimism of the era. For the residents of Napier, the old city could not be resurrected. The one they built in its place had to express the assertion that everything would be alright once more.
 

After World War II, Napier's thirties style became passé, but because the city was relatively new, no restoration work needed to be done until the 1980's, when during the national building boom, it was recognised that Napier had something unique and worth preserving.  In 1985, the Art Deco Trust was established - its aim are to preserve, enhance and promote Napier's Art Deco heritage. Once a year, during the Art Deco Weekend, the town literally rocks as vintage cars come out of their protective padding, people dress in twenties and thirties clothing, and thousands of people picnic on the lawns to the sound of jazz bands. 

Sir Charles Napier wouldn't recognise his city. Its wide streets are neat as a pin, the buildings painted in a range of colours from soft pink to turquoise to pale blue to yellow.  Before anything else, though, do the Art Deco Walk, guided or alone, to get a full appreciation of Napier's architectural delights. Pop into the Deco Centre in Tennyson Street (hard to miss, it used to be Napier’s Fire Station) for a comprehensive range of information on the style... Published in Homes & Living Magazine, January 1998.

 
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