The organisation’s history reflects both sustained efforts to document New York’s Art Deco heritage and a determined, if sometimes unsuccessful, fight to preserve it.
The history of the Art Deco Society of New York is tied closely to the life of a city that once built relentlessly in the style it champions. The society’s story is not one of simple celebration. It is a record of campaigns fought for interiors and lobbies, some won and some lost, against a backdrop of constant change in New York. Its earliest documented activity involved making the architecture visible. A founding member, Anthony W. Robins, organised the city’s first regularly scheduled series of Art Deco walking tours, sponsored by the society.
Early Recognition and International Ties
The society’s place within a wider movement became clear in May 2005. It hosted the eighth World Congress on Art Deco in New York. The gathering was part of the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies, which holds such a congress every two years. This event placed the society and the city’s architecture within a global context of Art Deco study.
A Decade of Preservation Fights
A major campaign began in 2016, when the society launched a drive to save the interiors of the Waldorf Astoria. That effort secured landmark protection for the interiors in 2017, a notable success.
A more difficult fight came later. On February 9, 2021, the society’s executive director, Meghan Weatherby, testified at the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The society also launched an online petition that same day. The aim was to landmark the lobby of Raymond Hood’s 1931 McGraw-Hill Building at 330 West 42nd Street. Despite this campaign, the Art Deco lobby was stripped in 2021.
Recent Activity and a Centennial
Roberta Nusim, president of the society’s board since 2013, led the organisation into a major anniversary. In 2025, the society organised a year-long programme of events for the centenary of the 1925 Paris Exposition. The programme included a weekend from April 25 to April 28, 2025. The effort placed the society’s work within the longer history of the style’s origins.
Sources
- Architectural Record, ‘Preservationists launch effort to protect cherished Raymond Hood lobby at McGraw-Hill Building’, https://www.archpaper.com/2021/02/preservationists-launch-effort-to-protect-cherished-raymond-hood-lobby-mcgraw-hill-building/
- Forest Hills Times, ‘Celebrating the 1925 Paris Exposition’s centennial’, https://foresthillstimes.com/2025/01/28/celebrating-the-1925-paris-expositions-centennial/
- SUNY Press, ‘New York Art Deco’, https://sunypress.edu/Books/N/New-York-Art-Deco
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