Our local area ~ Napier

Napier and its' Art Deco:

Napier is probably New Zealand's most photographed city as tourists from all over the world record the variety of its unique buildings. Far from the world's great population centres and from the European and American cities where 20th Century design evolved lies a small city that is unique. Napier, New Zealand, was rebuilt in the early 1930s following a massive earthquake. Subsequent fires destroyed most of its commercial heart. By the end of the decade, Napier was the newest city on the globe.

Architects planned a new city with a new look incorporating stripped classical, Spanish mission and, most notably, art deco styles. Rows of palms and Norfolk Island pines—seen immediately outside Mon Logis on Marine Parade—were planted.

Nowhere else can you see such a variety of buildings in the styles of the 1930s - Stripped Classical, Spanish Mission, and above all Art Deco, the style of the 20th Century - in such a concentrated area. The former HOTEL CENTRAL on the right (1932) is one of the largest and finest Art Deco buildings. The upper floor has recently been refurbished to its' original character.
Napier Art Deco is unique, with Maori motifs and the buildings of Louis Hay, admirer of the great Frank Lloyd Wright.

Enhanced by palms and the Norfolk Island pines which are its trademark, and bounded by fertile fruit and grape growing plains, dramatic hills and the shores of the South Pacific, beautiful Napier is the centre of the Hawke's Bay region. In Napier, you can enjoy the legacy of its brave rebuilding and savour the spirit of the optimistic Art Deco era.

Fifty years passed before it was widely appreciated that the art deco style of the early 1930s survived in Napier and Gisborne as nowhere else. Napier's Art Deco Weekend is held every year in the third week of February. The program includes wining, dining, jazz, dancing, film, theatre, house tours, vintage cars and biplane barnstormers.

What exactly is it?

The style we now call Art Deco originated in Europe in the early years of the 20th Century, and its heyday was from 1920 to 1940. It became widely known following the great Exposition des Arts Modernes Decoratifs et Industriels, held in Paris in 1925 and from which its name was ultimately derived.

By the late 1930s it was in its streamlined phase and after World War 2, the International Style, devoid of all decoration, held sway. Not until the late 1960s did people begin to rediscover it and take it seriously.

Gerard can help with insight into Napier's special architecture. He can also arrange vineyard tours and restaurant bookings.