Art Deco Tulsa

Transformed from a cattle depot into the Oil Capital of the World, Tulsa emerged as an iconic Jazz Age metropolis. The Magic City attracted some of the nation’s most talented architects, including Bruce Goff, Francis Barry Byrne, Frank Lloyd Wright, Joseph R. Koberling Jr., Leon B. Senter and Frederick Kershner. Like their brazen oil baron clients, they were not afraid to take chances, and the city still reflects the splendor of that fabulous era. Writer Suzanne Wallis and photographer Sam Joyner celebrate the city’s enduring Art Deco legacy and its daring revival.

Author Biography

Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis and her husband, Michael, moved to Tulsa in 1982. Their working partnership has extended beyond the public relations firm they founded and has produced a number of books on Route 66, including Songdog Diary: 66 Stories from the Road (Council Oak Books, 1996) and The Art of Cars (Chronicle Books, 2006). They have led tours along America’s Main Street for Smithsonian Institution, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Harley-Davidson Motor Company, University Center at Tulsa, Philbrook Museum Friends of Native American Art and Tulsa Foundation for Architecture. Retired as United States magistrate judge in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sam Joyner has studied with master photographers across the country during the past twenty-five years, from the Ansel Adams Photography Workshop in Yosemite to the Maine Photographic Institute in Rockport. He received Best of Show at the 1995 Lawton Arts for All Festival and his photographs have been published in Nimrod International Literary Journal.