Gotham City Architecture Influences

[TMC1982]

My guesses:
*The Adam West "Batman" TV series - A pop art version of Boston since one episode references a "Gotham Rock."

*The Tim Burton films - An Art Deco and Art Nouveau (or perhaps more specificially, Expressionist architecture as seen more often in "Batman Returns") flavored version of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I'm only saying Vancouver since in the first Burton Batman film, there's a map of Gotham that is actually, an inverted map of Vancouver. It's been a while since I've seen "Batman '89" and "Batman Returns" in one showing, but since Anton Furst did the production design for "Batman '89" and Bo Welch did the production design for "Batman Returns", Gotham must of had somewhat of a different flavor/style.

*"Batman: The Animated Series" also appears to be heavily influcence by the Art Deco look. I would guess that "Batman: The Animated Series" could be an Art Deco version of Long Island, New York (more specifically, Queens).

*The Joel Schumacher films - Manhattan crossed with Neo-Toyko (a la as seen in "Akira" or any other subjects relating to the cyberpunk culture/genre).

*"Batman Beyond" - Futuristic architecture that mixes Gothic and Asian influences. Since "Batman Beyond" is canonical with "Batman: The Animated Series", I'm going to suggest that it's a futuristic version of Long Island.

*"Batman Begins" - A souped up version of Chicago.

It's probably more difficult to narrow down a specific look for the comics since various artists will depict their own versions of Gotham. Although for the most part, Gotham was been implied as an exaggerated version of New York City. The locations have either mostly been implied to be in the place of Manhatten or Vancouver.

*Post "No Man's Land" storyline - Modern architecture (with glass skyscrapers and buildings).

[DonC]

When DC revamped Gotham City a few years ago they hired Anton Furst, the art director on the Burton films. I think this was post-"No Man's Land," but I could be mistaken.

[Aaron Kashtan]

When DC revamped Gotham City a few years ago they hired Anton Furst, the art director on the Burton films. I think this was post-"No Man's Land," but I could be mistaken.

I don't believe that's possible-- Anton Furst died in 1991.

You might be thinking of the "Destroyer" crossover from 1992, which was a deliberate tribute to Furst. In that story, Gotham went from looking like a generic city to looking like Furst's set designs from the first movie (the way in which this happens is kind of silly and convoluted). "Destroyer" was in Batman #474, Detective Comics #641 and LOTDK #27.

Anton Furst's set designs for the Batman movie were an attempt to imagine "what might have happened to New York had there been no planning commission and had it been run by pure extortion and crime." Hence there are no height restrictions, the skyscrapers are cantilevered toward the street rather than away, there are lots of bridges over the streets, and as a result of all this, the city is extremely dark and claustrophobic. The individual buildings in Furst's version of Gotham are based on a whole host of influences. The cathedral is Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, the Flugelheim Museum exterior is based on Shin Takamatsu, and some of the other influences are Otto Wagner, Norman Foster, and Albert Speer.

Why do I know all this? Because I once wrote a paper about the set designs of Batman and Metropolis.

I don't know anything about Gotham City's architecture after "Destroyer."

[DonC]

It could have been "Destroyer," but like I said, I'm not sure. In fact, they might have just used Furst's design style without hiring him outright. I just remember there was this big todo in the editorial page about them changing the look of Gotham City.

[Kara Zor El]

It was definitely Destroyer. Pretty bad story as I remember. One of the first LOTDK let downs.

[Aaron Kashtan]

It was definitely Destroyer. Pretty bad story as I remember. One of the first LOTDK let downs.

I'd have to agree with that. It's kind of cool in an abstract sense, in that it's an intersection between comics, film and architecture, but it was not very well executed.

[Joker2503]

I might totally be making this up, but I seem to remember one of the BTAS commentaries saying that they wanted Gotham too look like "someone in the 1930s pictured the year 2000"