Greco Deco is a term coined by Washington, DC based
art historian James M. Goode to describe a style of art and
architecture popularized in the late 1920s and 1930s. Arising out of the
Beaux-Arts tradition, Greco Deco combined Greek and Roman traditions with those of the then fashionable
Art Deco. The style is also referred to as
Stripped Classical for its simpler appearance compared to
neoclassical architecture. Greco Deco architecture frequently expressed itself in a rather severe Greco-Roman
facade decorated with deco styles shallow
reliefs and/or deco styled interior decoration featuring
murals, tile
mosaics and sculpture. A common motif among Greco Deco architecture is the use of stylized or simplified
pilasters. The style was the almost-official style of many federal and local government buildings in the United States from the mid-1920s until World War II, and frequently overlaps with the style that architectural historian
David Gebhard terms "
WPA Moderne."