Napier is a city located on the east coast of the north island of New Zealand. I had never heard of it before my trip here, but it turns out that it is well known because it was designed in the style of Art Deco. What’s art deco, you ask? It was the popular decorative art style in the 1920s and 1930s. It is characterized by precise and boldly delineated geometric shapes that are seen in architecture. It turns out that there was a devastating 7.8 earthquake in Napier on February 3, 1931 that killed 256 people. The earthquake last for two and a half minutes. Can you imagine? Two and a half minutes! Wow! I’m sure it won’t surprise you that the earthquake destroyed many of the buildings in the city. Because Art Deco was fashionable at the time and because it was relatively inexpensive to create that look, the city’s buildings were rebuilt in that style. I went on a walking tour of the city and took some pictures of the Art Deco buildings so that you could get an idea of what they look like. If you’re interested in reading more about the Napier earthquake, click here. (One fascinating outcome of the earthquake that I’d quickly like to mention is that 25 square miles of land rose up from the sea bed to become dry land. This increased Napier’s size and, in fact, the airport there now sits on top of a large portion of this land.)
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