Stores, Restaurants, and Bars

Davidson's Los Angeles office

Satyr Books

Schilling's flower store

Bachelor's Haberdashery shop

Davidson’s move to America prompted a fresh start in his designs. The early nineteenth century “Biedermeier” style of his Berlin projects was left behind, the neoclassical decoration exchanged for the cleaner, more modern look of Art Deco, especially present in the graphics of store signs. His first two storefront commissions, one for West 7^th street, (1926-27), the other one for Archie Bilicke, on Wilshire Boulevard (1929), show the shift from an ornamented and more opaque façade, as seen in Davidson’s own office (1927), to a modern glass façade by the end of the 1920s. The shop window became transparent, focusing entirely on the display, which was illuminated at night by indirect lightning. Reminiscent of stores designed by Adolf Loos in Vienna, the V-shaped entrance to the Satyr Book Store (1929) was recessed and lined with showcases, virtually drawing customers into the shop. Illuminated inside by neon tubes above the shelves, the lighting enhanced the spatial flow—a new idea which was also featured in Jock D. Peters’ design for Bullock’s Wilshire at around the same time.

The Golden Lion Inn

Hotel Knickerbocker bar and tavern

Hi-Hat restaurant

During The Great Depression, Davidson left Los Angeles for Chicago, where he worked between 1933 and 1936 on various hotel renovations. The repeal of Prohibition, in 1933, resulted in redesigns of hotel bars and restaurants. With his European heritage and knowledge of café and restaurant design in Paris and London, Davidson was a good choice and was tasked with rearranging hotel restaurants to include separate bar areas and cocktail lounges. Back in Los Angeles, he deployed these skills again in a redesign of Sardi's Restaurant (1937), after it had suffered a fire. The challenge in this project was to create two entrances within a very narrow façade. His creative solution was a horizontal blue glass facade divided by metal panels, repeated inside in a zig-zag screen which divided the bar and restaurant.