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NORMAN BEL GEDDES

BIG FOUR
NORMAN BEL GEDDES
DISEÑO AMERICANO AÑOS 30`S 
Estudió arte en Cleveland Institute of Art y después en el Art Institute de Chicago
durante un breve período.

En el año 1913 trabajó como delineante para la industria publicitaria de Detroit, donde
diseñó carteles para Packard y General Motors.

En 1916 escribió una obra de teatro y luego trabajó como escenógrafo para seis
producciones de Los Ángeles.

En 1918 se convirtió en escenógrafo de la Metropolitan Opera Company de Nueva

York, antes de trasladarse a Hollywood en el año 1925, donde creó decorados
cinematográficos.

Influido por Frank Lloyd Wright y el arquitecto Erich Menelsohn, en 1927 Geddes se

dedicó a la arquitectura y al estilismo de productos.

Asesor de diseño industrial de éxito, especialmente en sus trabajos para

Toledo Scale Company en 1929 y Standard Gas Equipment Corporation en
1931, Geddes es más recordado como propagandista del diseño.

En el año 1932, publicó el libro Horizons, en el que explicaba su enfoque del diseño

industrial y su creencia en la supremacía de la forma lacrimal.

Geddes diseñó coches futuristas para la compañía de automóviles Gram.-Paige (en el

año 1928) y productos aerodinámicos como radios para Philco (en 1931), carcasas de
radio para RCA, mobiliario metálico de dormitorio para Simmons (en 1929) y el famoso
Soda King Syphon para Walter Kidde Sales Co.

Uno de sus mayores logros fue la estandarización de material de cocina. El diseño de

su cocina modular y aerodinámica Oriole (en 1931) para la Standard
Gas Equipmento Company tenía un armazón de acero revestido por paneles
esmaltados de vidrio blanco.
Geddes diseñó la exposición ¨Futurama¨de General Motors para la New York World
´s Fair, celebrada en 1939, en la cual se especulaba sobre el futuro, tal como se creía
que iba a ser alrededor de 1960, y que predijo acertadamente el sistema de autopistas.

La mayor parte de sus diseños jamás alcanzaron las cadenas de producción. Su

aportación fundamental a la profesión fue proyectar una imagen del diseñador
industrial como visionario tecnológico.
Geddes se convirtió en el principal propagandista y en el más entusiasta seguidor de la
recién nacida aerodinámica.

Geddes también tendió a lo excesivo, olvidando con frecuencia las limitaciones del

contexto industrial y del momento real en que vivía, lo cual ocurría
debido asu tendencia a pensar en tiempo futuro.

Otra característica de Geddes fue ofrecer a veces propuestas utópicas

sobredimensionadas mientras que otras veces, éstas eran verdaderamente realistas y
capaces de aportar soluciones altamente innovadoras para elpresente

Geddes fue uno de los grandes exponentes del Streamlining, así como un importante

pionero en la asesoría del diseño industrial.

 
Norman Bel Geddes
Faries Manufacturing Company
Lámpara "Cobra"
fecha de diseño circa 1930,EEUU
 La bombilla está oculta por la cobertor que hace que la luz brille hacia arriba y
refleje hacia abajo desde la parte inferior de la parte superior. Esta lámpara emite una
fuerte luz de lectura indirecta con fuera de tener el resplandor del bulbo. 
Su forma boomerang se adelanta en lo que sería la proxima face del streamline
conocido como Atomic Style.  En al base del pie se puede apreciar tres lineas
horizontales parte de la tipología del stream line

radio “PATRIOT 400"

fecha de diseño  1940
EEUU
 
Radio "Patriot"  modelo FC-400 fabricada en 1940 por el diseñador industrial Norman Bel Geddes. Con la
guerra que se cierne sobre Europa y convertirse en una amenaza creciente para los EE.UU., el nombre
de esta radio tenia como intención tocar la fibra sensible con los compradores de radios
estadounidenses, que lo convirtieron en un éxito de ventas de Emerson. Bel Geddes tratado de
promover la tecnología americana, la industria, y la identidad, a través de la utilización de su logotipo de
estrellas y rayas de la radio. Este diseño de la radio "Patriot", ayudó a reforzar el orgullo nacional
durante los difíciles años de la Gran Depresión.

Texaco Doodlebug Tanker Truck, 1935

El camión cisterna conocido como " Texaco Doodlebug"  se produjo después de que la empresa contrató
a la empresa de diseño Bel Geddes en la decada de los 30's para refrescar toda su marca y darle un
estilo más contemporáneo. Las actualizaciones incluyen cambios en el logotipo, arquitectura de la
estación de gasolina Texaco y hasta los uniformes de los asistentes.

Motor Car no. 8,

1934, EEUU
LINKS RELACIONADOS
Norman Bel Geddes (VIDEO)
A STYLIST`S PROSPECTUS

COLABORE CON ESTA PÁGINA  

LA REDACCIÓN DE ALGUNOS TEXTOS SE ENCUENTRAN EN PROCESO DE
CORRECCIÓN. SERÁN BIEN RECIBIDAS TODAS LAS OBSERVACIONES DE LOS
LECTORES.
FAVOR ENVIAR A :
joseluisesperon@gmail.com
 
Publicado 29th October 2013 por historia
Etiquetas: Big Four historia diseño industrial Jose Luis Esperon Lampara Cobra Motor Car
no. 8 NORMAN BEL GEDDES Radio Patriot 400 Texaco Doodlebug Tanker Truck
 Aereal Restaurant Norman Bel Geddes Re-designed
by YACademy Students and MIR
Aereal Restaurant Norman Bel Geddes Re-designed by YACademy Students and MIR

Court
esy of YAC srl and MIR

 June 16, 2020

The dialogue with history is certainly one of the most exciting topics for reflection that
a designer may approach. Among the several academic and post-graduation courses,
YACademy is certainly one of the most prestigious contexts within which designers
may explore the topic of history and past architectures. Located in the historical heart of
one of the oldest and most important Italian cities, YACademy offers a refined
specialization program in "Architecture for Heritage". Now in its third edition, the
course offers the opportunity to discuss the topic with some of the most refined design
firms, with the likes of Alberto Veiga, Kazuyo Sejima, David Chipperfield and
Benedetta Tagliabue.
The course offers many lectures and excellent internships; it is made of a program
including lessons and workshops and embodies a reflection opportunity on the historical
design. The study of the utopias of modernity and an attempt to re-actualize them was
-within the 2018 edition- one of the fascinating paths that involved some students at the
end of the course. Through the exclusive collaboration with the MIR -Norwegian artists
authors of some of the most suggestive images of virtual architecture of the last decade-
the students were able to reflect and update one of the most visionary utopian visions of
the modern period: the "aereal restaurant" by Norman Bel Geddes.
Here follows a focus on the project made by Sara Donato, a former student at
YACademy.
 Court
esy of YAC srl and MIR

There are out-of-the-box projects that are totally beyond any convention. In such
projects, architects pushed the use of materials to the limit, explored new ideas and
challenged conventions by paving the way to the future. What stopped them at their
drawing tables was politics, structural difficulties, the lack of funds or too cautious
clients who preferred to carry out traditional projects rather than investing in visionary
ones. We will go through some of these visionary architectures reinterpreted by some of
the best renderers in charge and inserted in a modern context. Specifically, we will
delve into Étienne-Louis Boullée’s Bibliothèque Nationale and the Aerial Restaurant by
Norman Bel Geddes. Both of them were made immortal by their pure architectural
shape and their classic style. Despite this, none of them was ever built.

The architects of the modern movement used to focus on functionalism. They used
materials such as steel and glass to design buildings and new cities. Norman Bel
Geddes’s work aimed at developing appropriate shapes that could meet the needs of
their inhabitants. Indeed, the tapered lines of the aerial restaurant that Bel Geddes
presented at the Chicago Exposition are grounded in functionalism.
Courtesy of YAC srl and MIR

Norman Bel Geddes was an architect, a designer and an art director. He had a very clear
vision of the future, where technology would play a fundamental role with its new
materials and shapes. ‘There are no doubts. Architecture is about to be affected by a
new dynamism: it can become bubbly as tabloids, talkies or variety shows’.

In the 1933-1934 Universal Exposition in Chicago Bel Geddes tried to make dining
rooms as spacious as possible, especially inside the exhibition areas where the
restaurant choice is usually limited. Their shapes and appearance mattered but they also
had to be functional for the staff. They had to be equipped with well-designed kitchens,
spaces and proper facilities. Meals had to be entertaining also thanks to the architecture
of the restaurant.

The most surprising space had to be the Aerial Restaurant. It consisted of three
superimposed semicircular storeys. They had to be suspended at the top of a tower and
to overlook the exhibition site. This design would avoid a continuous shadow projection
on the glass windows in the lower levels and would offer clients a light and shadow
alternation. The whole facility had to be as high as a 25-storey building. Its most
modern characteristic would have been movement: the restaurant would slowly revolve
offering different views.

Courtesy of YAC srl and MIR

Just above half of the tower, the first floor would host a restaurant and a dance floor for
six hundred people. The intermediate-floor restaurant would have served light
refreshments at affordable prices and accommodate up to four hundred people. At the
top, there had to be a smaller high-end restaurant with no more than two hundred seats.
Kitchens would have been located in the basement.

For dish serving Bel Geddes designed nine dumb waiters to be added to three elevators
for visitors. How to furnish such a technologically advanced building in order to make it
even more inviting? No interior design effort was necessary because the facility was
already intriguing, as a piece of plain architecture. The aerial restaurant aimed at having
the same impact on the public as the previous Crystal Palace in London in 1851 and the
Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1889.

Co
urtesy of YAC srl and MIR
However, the financial funds for the exposition sharply declined and suddenly in 1929
the Wall Street Crash took place. Moreover, it is believed that there were prejudices
towards the designer: the world of architecture was suspicious of Bel Geddes because
he was not a professional architect. He was an industrial designer, a teacher, but he did
not have the necessary requirements to work as an architect. Several members of the
board, leading architects as Raymond Hood and Frank Lloyd Wright supported his
ideas. However, they did not prevail.

Nowadays the aerial restaurant is known thanks to the photographs of the plastic model
that Maurice Goldberg made. The legacy of this project lives on in other futuristic
facilities specifically in some revolving restaurants such as the one that brought fame to
the BT Tower in London or the one in Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, both dating back
to the Sixties. The buildings were built to be motionless, but the idea to make them
move was never abandoned.
Norman Bel Geddes
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Norman Bel Geddes

Born Norman Melancton Geddes

April 27, 1893

Adrian, Michigan, U.S.

Died May 8, 1958 (aged 65)

New York, New York, U.S.

Nationality American

Occupation Theatrical designer

Industrial designer

Notable work Airliner Number 4

Futurama

Mark I computer case
 Spouse(s) Helen Belle Schneider

Edith Lutyens

Children Barbara Bel Geddes

Joan Bel Geddes Ulanov

Norman Bel Geddes with part of the Shell Oil City of Tomorrow. Photo: Frances Resor Waite c.1937.

Norman Bel Geddes (born Norman Melancton Geddes; April 27, 1893 – May

8, 1958) was an American theatrical and industrial designer.[1]

Contents

 1Early life
 2Career
 3Death and legacy
 4Gallery
 5Selected publications
 6See also
 7References and notes
 8External links

Early life[edit]
Bel Geddes was born Norman Melancton Geddes in Adrian, Michigan, and
raised in New Philadelphia, Ohio, the son of Flora Luelle (née Yingling) and
Clifton Terry Geddes, a stockbroker.[2] When he married Helen Belle Schneider
in 1916, they combined their names to Bel Geddes.[3] Their daughters were
actress Barbara Bel Geddes[4] and writer Joan Ulanov.[5]

Career[edit]

The insignia used by Bel Geddes in his published works

Bel Geddes began his career with set designs for Aline Barnsdall's Los Angeles
Little Theater in the 1916–17 season, then in 1918 as the scene designer for
the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He designed and directed various
theatrical works,[6] from Arabesque and The Five O'Clock Girl on Broadway to an
ice show, It Happened on Ice, produced by Sonja Henie. He also created set
designs for the film Feet of Clay (1924), directed by Cecil B. DeMille, designed
costumes for Max Reinhardt, and created the sets for the Broadway production
of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End (1935).[citation needed]
Bel Geddes opened an industrial-design studio in 1927, and designed a wide
range of commercial products, from cocktail shakers to commemorative
medallions to radio cabinets. His designs extended to unrealized futuristic
concepts: a teardrop-shaped automobile, and an Art Deco House of Tomorrow.
[7]
 In 1929, he designed "Airliner Number 4," a 9-deck amphibian airliner that
incorporated areas for deck-games, an orchestra, a gymnasium, a solarium,
and two airplane hangars.[8]
His book Horizons (1932) had a significant impact: "By
popularizing streamlining when only a few engineers were considering its
functional use, he made possible the design style of the thirties." [9] He wrote
forward-looking articles for popular American periodicals. [10][11]
In the classic science fiction film of H. G. Wells' Things to Come (1936), he
assisted production designer William Cameron Menzies on the look of the world
of tomorrow.
Bel Geddes designed the General Motors Pavilion, known as Futurama, for
the 1939 New York World's Fair. For that famous and enormously influential
installation, Bel Geddes exploited his earlier work in the same vein: he had
designed a "Metropolis City of 1960" in 1936.[12]
Bel Geddes's book Magic Motorways (1940) promoted advances in highway
design and transportation, foreshadowing the Interstate Highway System, along
with aspects of driver assist and autonomous driving.[13]
The case for the Mark I computer was designed by Norman Bel
Geddes. IBM's Thomas Watson presented it to Harvard. At the time, some saw
it as a waste of resources, since computing power was in high demand during
this part of World War II and those funds could have been used to build
additional equipment.[citation needed]

Death and legacy[edit]

Bel Geddes died in New York on May 8, 1958.[3] His autobiography, Miracle in
the Evening, was published posthumously in 1960.
Bel Geddes is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, a distinction he
shares with his daughter, actress Barbara Bel Geddes.[14] The United States
Postal Service issued a postage stamp honoring Bel Geddes as a "Pioneer Of
American Industrial Design".[15]
The archive of Norman Bel Geddes is held by the Harry Ransom Center at
the University of Texas at Austin. This large collection includes models, drafts,
watercolor designs, research notes, project proposals, and correspondence.
The Ransom Center also holds the papers of Bel Geddes' wife, the noted
costume designer and producer Edith Lutyens Bel Geddes. [16]

Gallery[edit]

Model of teardrop-shaped automobile designed by Bel Geddes

 

General Motors 25th anniversary medal, 1933, featuring teardrop shaped car
 

"Through the City of Tomorrow Without a Stop", Shell Oil advertisement, 1937.
 

Norman Bel Geddes. Cocktail Set. 1937. Brooklyn Museum

 


 A full scale street intersection in the City of the Future at the Futurama exhibit at the 1939
New York World's Fair
 

Emerson Model 400-3 "Patriot" (1940) radio designed by Bel Geddes, made of Catalin

Selected publications[edit]

 Horizons Little Brown, Boston, 1932.

 "Streamlining", Atlantic Monthly, No. 154 (November 1934), pp. 553–558.
 Magic Motorways. Random House, New York, 1940.
 Miracle in the Evening: An Autobiography. Doubleday, New York, 1960. Edited
by William Kelley.

References and notes[edit]

1. ^ Dyal, Donald H. (1983). Norman Bel Geddes: Designer of the Future. Monticello,

IL: Vance Bibliographies. ISBN 9780880665841.
2. ^ Pylant, James (2005). "The Midwestern Roots of Barbara Bel Geddes ("Miss
Ellie")". GenealogyMagazine.com. Datatrace Systems. Archived from the original  on
August 27, 2012. Retrieved  October 21,  2012.
3. ^ Jump up to:a b Magill, Frank N. (2013).  The 20th Century A-GI: Dictionary of World
Biography, Volume 7. Routledge. p. 1319.  ISBN  978-1136593345.
4. ^ Fox, Margalit (2005-08-11).  "Barbara Bel Geddes, Lauded Actress, Dies at
82". New York Times.
5. ^ Ratliff, Ben (2000-05-07). "Barry Ulanov, 82, a Scholar Of Jazz, Art and
Catholicism". New York Times.
6. ^ Works, Bernhard Russell (1966). Norman Bel Geddes: Man of Ideas  (Thesis).
Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.  OCLC 3116381.
7. ^ Tinniswood, Adrian (2002).  The Art Deco House. New York: Watson-Guptill.
p.  20. ISBN 9780823003150.
8. ^ Stephens, Ian (March 29, 2009). "Huge Aviation of the 1930s: The K-7 and The
Bel Geddes #4". Fly Away Simulation. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
9. ^ Meikle, Jeffrey L. (2001).  Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design in
America, 1925–1939 (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
p.  48. ISBN 9781566398923.
10. ^ Bel Geddes, Norman (November 1934). "Streamlining".  Atlantic Monthly: 553–
558.
11. ^ Bel Geddes, Norman (January 1931). "Ten Years From Now". The Ladies' Home
Journal: 190.
12. ^ Wolf, Peter M. (1974).  The Future of the City: New Directions in Urban Planning.
New York: Watson-Guptill. p.  28. ISBN 9780823071821.
13. ^ Magic motorways by Norman Bel Geddes, 1940, pp. 43-56. Quote: "But these
cars of 1960 and the highways on which they drive will have in them devices which will
correct the faults of human beings as drivers. They will prevent the driver from committing
errors. They will make it possible for him to proceed at full speed through dense fog."
14. ^ "Theater Hall of Fame members".
15. ^ Hopper, Grace Murray  (January 7, 1969). "Computer Oral History Collection,
1969-1973, 1977"  (PDF) (Interview). Interviewed by Uta C. Merzbach. Washington, D.C.:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Archived from the
original  (PDF) on February 23, 2012. Retrieved  October 21,2012.
16. ^ "Norman Bel Geddes Theater and Industrial Design
Papers".  www.hrc.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-29.