Deco Pride

Napier’s annual Art Deco weekend celebrates the most complete Art Deco city on earth, writes Times Online travel writer Dan Cruickshank, where even street furniture and signage consistent with the style have become policy and authentic colour schemes have been re-created. Here, in a way, was the European tribe of New Zealand celebrating its history and culture through Art Deco architecture. Cruickshank particularly admires the National Tobacco Company Building by Louis Hay, a marriage of Art Deco and Art Nouveau, and the Daily Telegraph Building by E. A. Williams ó modest in scale, but monumental in its aspirations. Napier’s Art Deco Weekend is more than a mere fancy dress party ó it is, in its own way, an expression of pride and identity.