Sold out and not currently in print. Until next reprint edition please access the book at the following worldwide libraries
ABOUT THE BOOK
This is a coffee table book I was inspired to write while serving on the Board of Directors of The Miami Design Preservation League (2004 -2007)—the organization responsible for preserving Miami Beach’s Art Deco architectural heritage. Published in 2007, it was the first book focused on defining the design style that inspired Mumbai’s Art Deco Architecture (the city of my youth). I was humbled to learn it became an award winning Top 10 Bestseller soon after its publication in India. You are invited to learn about this magnificent heritage by browsing some of the captioned stories and images from the book featured by the Press.
Working on the book was a labour of love to share the architectural design style of Mumbai’s Art Deco neighbourhoods with the West. The vision began when I was working in Miami and where I later guided walking tours of The Miami Beach Art Deco District from 2002 to 2007 for several years as a volunteer for The Miami Design Preservation League; to raise awareness of the city’s heritage.
Leading these tours I began to re-discover the Art Deco design details of so many buildings in the neighbourhoods where I grew up in Mumbai, in parallel context to the architectural design I spoke of on my Miami Beach Art Deco walking tours. It became a passion to photograph these design details of Mumbai’s Art Deco Architecture over the years, which evolved into a multi-continent collaboration for the birth of my book. The objective was to focus on the design inspiration and movements during this era defining the city’s Art Deco architecture rather than the city’s urban history.
Eleven years after the book’s publication, Mumbai’s primary Art Deco District was finally designated a world heritage site by UNESCO in June 2018! What a joy to see this happen! A big thank you goes to the city’s conservation architects and so many citizen activists for working towards this nomination and to the organization - Art Deco Mumbai (in Mumbai) - for further revealing awareness of this heritage through social media. In our world today increasingly dominated by fabricated skyscrapers, Mumbai’s human scale Art Deco buildings transport you to another era in Mumbai where art and architecture were once woven together to define buildings for residential living and commerce.
I would also like to thank the Media for generating more awareness to this heritage by covering the book and also sharing some of their own unique stories about the city’s Art Deco architecture. You are welcome to view these stories in the media below.
Inside the Book
Bombay Art Deco Architecture - A Visual Journey 1930-1953 presents a treasury of Art Deco buildings comprising residential, commercial and civic architecture. These monuments were created during the mid '30s and '40s, a glamorous and optimistic era that predated the official end of the British Raj. The architects, a small list of first-generation Indian architects and builders, were mostly educated in English schools and trained in western architectural traditions. Impatient with the British reluctance to shed the Gothic and Indo-Saracenic architectural styles that had dominated Imperial Bombay's urban landscape, these visionaries were determined 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 author 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.
PRESS
June 22, 2017
New York’s Chrysler Building, the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, and the Delano in Miami may come to mind as some of the world’s most beautiful Art Deco Buildings, but what about Mumbai’s Eros Cinema, Empress Court, and India Assurance Building? You might be surprised to learn that Mumbai contains the world’s second largest concentration of Art Deco buildings, after Miami, with more than 200 such structures. Read More
February 27, 2007
Next time you’re on the phone with tech support or read about another Mumbai-born whiz kid among the 200,000 Indian millionaires in the US, try to visualize Bombay (officially Mumbai). Hint: Think Miami Beach. Subtropical climate, Art Deco details adorning Jazz Age façades of buildings with name like the Riviera and the Oceana, curving along not Ocean Drive but Marine Drive. Throw in bas-relief elephants, the glory of the British Raj and the glamour that begat Bollywood, and you get the picture. Read More
Spring, 2007
Bombay is known as one of the great Gothic Revival cities of the world It is less well known that it is also an Art Deco city, able to boast stylish buildings of the 1930s and 40s comparable to those in Miami or Los Angeles. Read More
July 13, 2018
Some of Mumbai’s architectural treasures in The Art Deco style have just been inscribed as World Heritage by UNESCO. Navin Ramani grew up in one facing the Oval Maidan, but it wasn't until much later, when he was leading walking tours of The Art Deco heritage in Miami Beach, US, that he drew parallels with the rich heritage he had left behind. Read More
February 9, 2007
Navin Ramani tells Naresh Fernandes how he found a bit of Mumbai in faraway Miami.... Read More
May 4, 2007
For those who have been to Mumbai, Navin Ramani’s book, Bombay Art Deco Architecture: A Visual Journey (1930-1953), will come as a nostalgic trip past the city’s immortal landmarks, zooming in from time to time to catch the details. From Liberty Cinema in New Marine Lines, with its bas relief that resembles piano keys, to the flamboyant terrazzo flooring in the lobbies of many buildings, and the vertical banding in the Astoria Hotel, Churchgate - these are among 222 images in the book that express the art deco style of the 1930s and 40s. Read More
Annual, 2007
This book is a revelation of something that, in retrospect, seems obvious: a city with parallels to Los Angeles ( a major film industry ), Miami Beach ( superb tropical beauty ) and Manhattan ( financial power and cultural vibrancy, especially during the 1920s - '30s ) can be expected to have some great Art Deco Architecture... Read More
Spring, 2007
The Art Deco buildings of Bombay are rapidly being transformed by the exigencies of space and neglect,” said Rahul Mehrotra, governor of the Heritage Conservation Committee of the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority. “Navin Ramani’s book awakens world attention to this treasury of Indian architecture and to the delights of the wonderful Art Deco movement in Bombay’s history.” Read More
March 11, 2007
Last week Navin Ramani released his book “Bombay Art Deco Architecture. A Visual Journey 1930-1953 at Gordon House Hotel. This book is intended as a sampling of Art Deco Architecture in Bombay/Mumbai..... Read More
TAJ HOSPITALITY MAGAZINE
This collectors issue of Taj Hospitality magazine features an extensive 60 page illustration of Bombay's Art Deco heritage. It is worth owning for your library if you are able to get a hold of this very special issue..... Read More
February, 2007
Mumbai's modern-day boxy and characterless skyscrapers gives one the image of a city that is at the mercy of avaricious builders squeezing money out of every square foot of space that they can construct on, rather than a city of architectural masterpieces.... Read More
March 29, 2013
Art deco buildings in Mumbai have found a new legion of fans after a stretch of structures built in the 1920s, 30s and 40s became last year one of two Indian bids to be declared as a Unesco World Heritage Site (the other site was in New Delhi). Unknown to many, Mumbai has one of the largest concentrations of original and surviving art deco edifices in the world, second only to Miami, Florida, in this respect. Read More
Life seems to be about memory, the memory of home, the memory of everything that takes us back to places that elicit emotions. Photography, because of its fundamental bond to the world, seems to give us the attachment or something close to the truth about the past. Read More
LAUNCH EVENTS
It was an honour to speak about the book at many Art Deco organizations across North America following the publisher’s release in 2007 in India, which helped to bridge a cultural gap in revealing Mumabi’s Art Deco heritage.
BOOK REVIEWS
The Art Deco buildings of Bombay are rapidly being transformed by the exigencies of space and neglect. Navin Ramani’s book awakens world attention to this treasury of Indian architecture and to the delights of the wonderful Art Deco movement in Bombay’s history.
Rahul Mehrotra
Governor of the Heritage Conservation Committee
Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Developement Authority (MMRDA)
Principal, RMA Architects
This is an extraordinary and exciting new book on a topic little known in the USA. The Art Deco of Bombay, India is exuberant and wonderful, and the comparisons Mr. Ramani draws between Bombay Deco and Miami Beach Deco are right on the mark. It’s filled with gorgeous pictures. Quite an accomplishment.
Michael Kinerk
Chairman Emeritus, Miami Design Preservation League
The first Art Deco Preservation Society (Est. 1976) - Miami - USA
As beautifully illustrated in Navin Ramani’s “Bombay Art Deco Architecture” the worldwide Art Deco movement speaks a universal language. This visually impressive study highlights the outstanding architecture available in Bombay for the student of Art Deco and should be included in anyone’s library of reference material. His colourful and bold photographs are statement quality pieces of the ever widening passionate circle of Art Deco fans.
Kathryn Hausman
President, Art Deco Society of New York
If you buy only one book about Art Deco in the sub-continent, it should be this one. Stunningly presented and backed by solid research, the photographs alone make it worth seeking out. Mr Ramani has done an outstanding job of showcasing his native country’s architectural heritage - in a book long overdue. Highly recommended.
Tess Johnston
Author of Art Deco in Shanghai
As an architect practicing historic preservation and contextual infill architecture, in Florida and Central America I found your book to be a great source of inspiration for the Art Deco style which is found through South Florida. We are currently designing an Art Deco style infill mix-use project in downtown Ft. Pierce and will use the book as a source of inspiration for its beautiful imagery on exterior and interior detailing. The book is a must have for any serious architect.
Rick Gonzalez
Chairman, Florida Board of Architecture & Interior Design 2005 - 2006
President, REG Architects - West Palm Beach - Florida USA
Thank you for your great book. It opens the door of Art Deco Architecture in India and shows the charm of this brilliant art. It adequately expresses the luxuriant content inherited from the historic architectural culture through your fantastic compilation. Your creative explanation of Art Deco architecture has made an effective introduction to the world.
Xing Tong He
Chief Architect, World Expo 2010 Architectural Center - Shanghai
Xian Dai Architectural Design Group - Shanghai - China
This book is a revelation of something that, in retrospect, seems obvious: a city with parallels to Los Angeles (a major film industry), Miami Beach (superb tropical beauty) and Manhattan (financial power and cultural vibrancy, especially during the 1920s – ‘30s) can be expected to have some great Art Deco architecture. As Navin Ramani shows us, Bombay extravagantly surpasses all expectations – from the wealth of examples shown in this splendidly illustrated book, it becomes clear that the city now known as Mumbai is a world-class Deco destination.
Alice Jurow
Editor, The Sophisticate - Art Deco Society of California
Bombay is known as one of the great Gothic Revival cities of the world; it is less well known that is is also an Art Deco city, able to boast stylish buildings of the 1930s and 1940s comparable to this in Miami or Los Angeles. This is not surprising as Bombay was the most vigorous and commercial city in India in the 20th Century, and also a place in love with modernity, the image of America, with the cinema - as the modern ‘ Bollywood ‘ industry the city testifies. Thanks to Navin Ramani we can now appreciate just how rich and extraordinary the Art Deco buildings or Bombay are. This well illustrated book is as exciting as it is welcome.
Gavin Stamp
Chairman, Twentieth Century Society - London - United Kingdom
It is fitting and fortuitous that a person who grew up in one of Bombay’s Art Deco Districts introduces the rest of the world to the Art Deco architecture still gracing the streets of that city. Ramani’s love for and understanding of the Art Deco style makes this book simultaneously personal and scholarly. The remarkable photographs confirm how many Deco buildings were built and have survived. This volume should be an inspiration for enthusiasts eager to explore a new place as well as academics.
Bennett Johnson
President, Chicago Art Deco Society
The Art Deco dream that is Miami Beach is familiar to us all, as a television location and through countless publications but less well known is the Art Deco district of Bombay (today Mumbai). In his book Navin Ramani, a former native of Bombay, compares the two cities and describes in detail stylish Bombay. The architecture of the 1930s and 40s is beautifully illustrated and his book will do much to bring in ’Deco fanciers’ from around the world. Surely one of the first in its field and much to be recommended.
Richard Gray
Author of Cinemas in Britain - London - United Kingdom
This book provides much joy for the lover of Art Deco. Lavishly illustrated with colour photos, it explains the origins, spread and acceptance of the Art Deco style in one of the worlds great port and trading centres. The passion for the authors home city is obvious in his clear descriptions and illustrations of buildings, their features and motifs and the architects (from abroad and locally) who created them. Most importantly he describes the incorporation of Indian artistic and architectural tradition into Bombay’s buildings. What a wonderful contribution to the literature of this elegant and vibrant era.
Robin Grow
President, Art Deco Society - Melbourne - Australia
“Bombay Art Deco Architecture” is a beautiful exposition of a world-wide style, as it was developed in India. Much like Miami Beach, London, New York, Los Angeles, and other cities which have significant Art Deco buildings, the buildings of Bombay show the classical training of their architects intersecting with the forms of early modernism. Bombay Art Deco focuses on a unique period of Indian cultural and architectural history which deserves to be saved and restored.
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
Dean, School of Architecture - University of Miami
Principal, Duany Plater - Zyberk & Company
In this fascinating and elegantly designed volume, with over 200 color photographs, Ramani examines the exuberant and sometimes exotic nature of the Art Deco style that expressed itself as the metropolis of Bombay took on the new international style in the 1930s and 1940s.
The amazingly similar visual vocabulary of Miami Beach and Bombay is breathtakingly revealed in the pages of Ramani’s book, even coining the term “Bo-Mi Deco” to describe the similarities between the two cities. With the love of an architect and a pride of his heritage, Ramani explores the use of the frozen fountain motif, streamlining, tropical imagery, eyebrows, Nautical Deco influences, and Egyptian and Classical elements well-known to anyone who has ever walked the streets of Miami Beach. One chapter shows buildings from both cities side by side so we can experience the total impact of seeing the world through the author’s eyes. BOMBAY ART DECO ARCHITECTURE is a must-have book for anyone who appreciates the style and for aficionados who savour Art Deco’s captivating variations as it proliferated throughout the world.
Tony Fusco
President, Art Deco Society of Boston (ADSB)
UNIVERSITY & LIBRARY ACCESS WORLDWIDE
If you are a student of design and architecture or travel and cultural explorer you can also access the book at one of the many universities, public libraries or educational institutions listed here.
ART DECO MUMBAI
To learn more about Mumbai’s Art Deco heritage please visit Art Deco Mumbai, a non-profit organization based in Mumbai, working to build the local archives of the city’s Art Deco buildings and serving as an advocate for its conservation. You can also book yourself for a guided tour if you are visiting the city and help support their work in Mumbai’s heritage conservation.
