Bombay Art Deco Architecture A Visual Journey 1930-1953 presents a treasury of Art Deco buildings
comprising residential, commercial and public architecture created during the glamorous and optimistic era of the
mid 1930s and 1940s. The architects, a small list of the first generation of modern Indian architects, were trained
in western archi...tectural traditions, if not actually in the West. These architects, influenced by the fashionable
aesthetic current in Europe, were eager to imbue the city with a new modern style. That style shares its provenance
with the Art Deco architecture of Miami Beach, termed Tropical Deco by Laura Cerwinske in her seminal 1981
book. Built in the same era, the Art Deco architecture of the two cities exhibits similar scale, geometry, tropical
vocabulary, and love of romance.
Author Navin Ramani lived in Bombay for 21 years, in an Art Deco apartment building called Court View
formerly owned by his grandparents. Much of his childhood was spent exploring his Deco-rich neighbourhood.
It was not until Ramani moved to Miami in 1989 and encountered the Miami Beach Art Deco District that he
recognized the great architectural legacy of his hometown. But while that great treasury of Miami Beach hotels
and apartments has been internationally recognized, nationally protected, and well documented, the larger
assembly of Art Deco buildings in Bombay has, until now, been taken for granted. Bombay Art Deco Architecture
provides an insightful exploration of its beauty and abundance.
An American originally from India, Navin Ramani grew up in the city then called Bombay. He is a graduate of Sydenham College, University of Bombay, and received a Masters of Business Administration from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Ramani's career in the United States has included collaborations with leading architects in India and Miami as a developer's project coordinator. He serves on the board of The Miami Design Preservation League, the organisation responsible for listing the Miami Beach Art Deco District in the National Register of Historic Places, and was co-chairman of the Art Deco Weekend Festival in 2005. He has led guided architectural tours of the Art Deco District since 2002, has lectured in Miami on Bombay's Art Deco style, and has been an honorary tour guide of Bombay's Art Deco architecture for the United Kingdom-based conservation organization, the Cinema Theatre Association and The Twentieth Century Society. A founding member of the Florida Chapter of The Congress for the New Urbanism, Ramani also provided extensive research for the publication of A Guidebook to New Urbanism in Florida 2005.
An American originally from India, Navin Ramani grew up in the city then called Bombay. He is a graduate of Sydenham College, University of Bombay, and received a Masters of Business Administration from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Ramani's career in the United States has included collaborations with leading architects in India and Miami as a developer's project coordinator. He serves on the board of The Miami Design Preservation League, the organisation responsible for listing the Miami Beach Art Deco District in the National Register of Historic Places, and was co-chairman of the Art Deco Weekend Festival in 2005. He has led guided architectural tours of the Art Deco District since 2002, has lectured in Miami on Bombay's Art Deco style, and has been an honorary tour guide of Bombay's Art Deco architecture for the United Kingdom-based conservation organization, the Cinema Theatre Association and The Twentieth Century Society. A founding member of the Florida Chapter of The Congress for the New Urbanism, Ramani also provided extensive research for the publication of A Guidebook to New Urbanism in Florida 2005.
An American originally from India, Navin Ramani grew up in the city then called Bombay. He is a graduate of Sydenham College, University of Bombay, and received a Masters of Business Administration from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Ramani's career in the United States has included collaborations with leading architects in India and Miami as a developer's project coordinator. He serves on the board of The Miami Design Preservation League, the organisation responsible for listing the Miami Beach Art Deco District in the National Register of Historic Places, and was co-chairman of the Art Deco Weekend Festival in 2005. He has led guided architectural tours of the Art Deco District since 2002, has lectured in Miami on Bombay's Art Deco style, and has been an honorary tour guide of Bombay's Art Deco architecture for the United Kingdom-based conservation organization, the Cinema Theatre Association and The Twentieth Century Society. A founding member of the Florida Chapter of The Congress for the New Urbanism, Ramani also provided extensive research for the publication of A Guidebook to New Urbanism in Florida 2005.
An American originally from India, Navin Ramani grew up in the city then called Bombay. He is a graduate of Sydenham College, University of Bombay, and received a Masters of Business Administration from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Ramani's career in the United States has included collaborations with leading architects in India and Miami as a developer's project coordinator. He serves on the board of The Miami Design Preservation League, the organisation responsible for listing the Miami Beach Art Deco District in the National Register of Historic Places, and was co-chairman of the Art Deco Weekend Festival in 2005. He has led guided architectural tours of the Art Deco District since 2002, has lectured in Miami on Bombay's Art Deco style, and has been an honorary tour guide of Bombay's Art Deco architecture for the United Kingdom-based conservation organization, the Cinema Theatre Association and The Twentieth Century Society. A founding member of the Florida Chapter of The Congress for the New Urbanism, Ramani also provided extensive research for the publication of A Guidebook to New Urbanism in Florida 2005.