Decorations

* See also Artists In Rapture
* See also Rapture Construction
* See also Art Deco - Raptures Prevalent Style
* See also Player_Residence
* See also New Rapture
* See also SanderCohenArt
* See also Nostalgia ( a key BioShock element )
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Various Alternate Themes for Rapture Decorations :
Aztec, Mayan, Egyptian, Babylonia, Minoan, Cambodian, etc ...  possibly integrated in with Art Deco .
Those were all the products of monarchy which Ryan abhorred, but still were symbolic of outstanding human achievements ( most things in the World have roots in earlier times ). Abstracting them all might make them 'cleaner'.
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Need some Electric (Lighted) Fountains to be Found in the Ruins :
Water effects combined with fancy controlled illumination by strobed lights. It was a craze at one time - those fads sure got old fast ... Pretty soon every cheap Beauty Salon had one. 
Game Graphics "Particle Effects" ( Objects ) used are usually relatively simple script-wise ( which is what you want with starter Assets - Another 'Tutorial Asset building thingee ... )
Similar scripting is Applicable to Sign Effects.
Eerie scene - Such a Fountain Still operating in the Ruins as if nothing was wrong.
Gotta have at least one Splicer group that 'worships' one of these things ( perhaps 'baptisms' ... heh ...)
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Efficient External Decoration :
Lots of cast cement architectural decorations in Real World (Up On The Surface) Art Deco. The Art_Deco style used various CAST (molded) material decorations, used repetitively ( in modular combinations ), and were fastened upon the main structure.
This is Logical for Rapture, with its lack of local supply and additional materials ( or the high cost of importing during its build phase ). Cement supplies were used by the majority of construction is available. 
Monumental decorations like those big statues seen at the entrance to Persephone had to be ConcreteThis isn't Bad Fantasy Infinite BS with its numerous ridiculously-huge metal statues everywhere. .
Note - Rapture's Location Water Depth means that exterior decoration have to be only a short distance away to be properly seen.
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Problem With Any External Rapture Building Decorations : 
Darkness. There is Little Point of decoration if it is NOT Visible ( or of limited viability ). 
You cannot see them from very far away -- light visibility dwindles VERY fast in (even pure) water ( and even faster in pollution-murky water like probably existed around Rapture ). Real_Physics#LightAbsorption
So, no matter how blindingly well-lit, such decorations just won't have the impact a well lit high tower would have in a city in the open air on The Surface.
External decorations should be mostly clustered where they can be seen - VERY CLOSE to adjacent windows, or from Submarines/Bathysphere/AE-Trains which pass close by. ( BTW - the whole automobile-like private sub idea has already largely been eliminated - it is not used for any significant amount of Rapture's passenger traffic - Sub transportation is just too complex/expensive ). 
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Pollution-Murky Water - Like There Probably Existed Around Rapture :
Sea currents near the ocean's surface clear the water, but in eddies ( Rapture is down in a 'crater'-like bowl shaped seabed pocket formation ) it might stick around the City's proximity for a while.
It Settles down in between buildings ... Cloudy bacteria filled water from sewage discharge
Prevailing Ocean Currents also wash in one direction generally.
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Elevators Doors Are A Fairly Simple Decoration :
First is from the Empire State Building ... simpler Art Deco style.
Second another nice Art Deco elevator door. 
Lots of variations could be had in the MMORPG because as an asset it largely differs with its graphics texture ( slightly more sophisticated would add a 'Bump Map' to give it a simple '3D' effect, which is well within the abilities of anyone who has used Photoshop ).
Lots of material is out there as ideas for MMORPG Assets ...
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An Iconic Building "Look" :
The Iconic 'Art Deco' Chrysler Building (finished 1930) for all its modern look was still made of interlocking steel girders, 3826000 bricks, poured concrete floors, and some early stainless metal decoration around its top. 
Rapture was constructed out of precast concrete, and similarly the materials are irrelevant to a building's "look".
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The Chrysler Building's footings ( sitting on bedrock well below street level ) were welded together boxes of short lengths of steel girder sunk into a mass of cement. Rising Girders were then fastened to heavy steel brackets welded to those embedded girders.
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Having a dozen buildings that look like the Chrysler Building makes little sense.
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List of different professions and types of work for a building (circa 1920s)
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Tin Tile Ceilings :
Pattern-pressed sheet-metal. Mass produced in late Victorian era through 1930. Was an inexpensive alternative to plaster detailing. It fit right in with the Art Deco type construction later ( where repeating prefabricated decorations were efficiently applied to the base structure ).
Sounds like one of those 'small businesses' which would 'fit right in' in Rapture ( and would have been used extensively in its construction -- With all the plain concrete and those false ceilings to accommodate the utilities which needed hiding ... ).
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Not Really Sure Why there are Tall Thin Spikes Ontop of so Many Buildings in Rapture's Skybox Views :
* They stick way up, when you don't want anything too close to the surface which a passing iceberg might shear off.  Also perfect ( as in super-bad structurally ) for ocean currents to push against (leverage) and try to bend/break.
* Impressive decoration maybe to have one such spire, but stupid for EVERY tall building to have its own (Spire Envy ???).
* Radio Waves do really badly thru water, so not for radio antennas ( and way too many if the Game Developers though that's what they were ).
* It is Too deep to act as a 'snorkel' to the ocean surface (to get air).
* No 'portable' Suns lighting all the darkness ( none had lights up there and they are many hundreds of feet away ).
* So what were they ???   "Just Looked Good..."  ( which they really didn't - especially again and again and ... ).
These Buildings are Quite thin, so there is not much usable interior space inside them and worse on the spires.  They don't appear to be lit, so not exactly decorative, not particularly aesthetic either ( not like Art Deco tower on Fontaine Futuristics, which is a more typical stylistic form ).  People would get a better look at such things ( if they are done for 'show' ) if immediately outside their window views, down where easily seen.
Fixes :
* Shorter buildings
* Little Thinness
* More Murk and darkness Out there
* One Tall 'Spired' building
* Shorter decorative Towers ( without pressurized interiors )
* Signs down close to inhabited areas and their windows
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Art Deco Extravaganza !!! :
The MMORPG has alot of potential for more Art Deco than seen in all the games/DLC with more unique objects and architecture and decoration. More Assets and even a 'Auto-Generator' which can combine elements much the way that modular system is used for many other game elements -- Good to vary/mix-stuff-up and have much less obvious repetition ( particularly when the 'world' map expands as the Players play ).
I'm not sure what the legal issues are with copying design elements from existing buildings or furniture, etc ... How heavily mutated they might have to be, etc ...
Art Deco was also known as :
* Streamline
* Skyscraper
* Jazz Age
* Moderne
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Add Lots Of Interior Lighting
So much of the games' interiors had no apparent lighting devices. The MMORPG would address that lack. You would definitely notice when they are NOT operating.
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Repeating Patterns :
Art Deco decorations were often repetitive -- Saving money when the same modular decoration unit was replicated off the same mold/form/jig : Sheet Metal and 'Terra Cotta' castings and Tile work, Glass Brick, and even colored Sheet Glass (ie - Vitrolite).
Of course, in the BioShock game, if the nearest building exterior was too far, any fine detailing would be lost ( and thus generally be pointless ). In the MMORPG there would be more freedom of movement to see such details ( as well as more rendering resources than available on the solo game level maps ).
More unique/ornate Art Deco detailings were reserved for things like doorways which focused attention.
In a computer game, repeating patterns often are used to minimize the Graphics Memory (textures) the game terrain/prop Assets require.
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Those Huge Decorative Statues Seen At Entrance to Persephone :
Proof that Persephone WASN'T Secret ( Otherwise why waste making them for someplace hardly anybody saw ? --- AND with Ryan Paying for it. ) Oooooh, 'intimidating' inmates ?? Not likely, if most people arriving had a bag over their head.
That "Secret" thing was only part of a dim narrative for the 'disappeared' people the writers were trying to vilify Ryan with ( like it was only a 'night and fog' gulag/concentration camp ). 
It would be a consolidated City Jail, Mental Asylum ( needed much more after ADAM ), and a Prison to exile traitors, murderers and criminals who refuse to follow Rapture society's laws, and a place to warehouse the criminally insane. 
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With what we know about Sinclair who was 'in charge' of getting Persephone built - he would have got 'a good deal' on obtaining those statues ( perhaps even from a company he owned ). It all must've fit into the Budget Ryan and the City Council had specified. Ryan may have ordered "The Gates Of Exile" to impress criminals sent to Persephone the cost of being OutlawsPeople who put themselves outside the Law by committing Crimes in a Society. 
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Mirror Mirror ... :
Lots of Mirror in Rapture to handle that claustrophobic feeling
It seems a logical thing to have.
Also use of mirrors ( a big seller in Rapture ) to make your spaces look more 'roomy'.
Unfortunately the modified Unreal Engine they used didn't handle 'mirrors' very well ... ( A much better Game Engine would be used for the MMORPG )
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Decorative Fountains with Particle Effects
Animation with 'Physics' and lighting effects
Hmm, it just came to mind : the general lack of fancy Particle Physics effect for QUANTUM EXTRAVGANZA Columbia ( It could been quite interesting ).
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Fancy Art Deco Lighting Sconce (Real). Players can go 'hog-wild' creating details for Rapture, which was barely touched upon by the previous games. Sure, these things would cost some money, but they are hardly marble statues made by Phidias.
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Rapture, with all its embedded infrastructure (under the sidewalks), would have plenty of appropriately decorated public accesses.
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Various Machinery Gracing The Walls :
Normally such things should be hidden away in utility spaces in Public Areas, but we see Rapture after things have been disturbed, and many repairs and additions likely have been made to keep the environmental systems running.
FunkyPump.jpg
PumpThingees.jpg
EnvironmentUnit2.jpg
EnvironmentalBox.jpg
FunkyMachines2.jpg
PumpingThingee.jpg
FunkyMachines3.jpg
GianourmousWoodBeams.jpg
Exit_Sign.jpg
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OK plain concrete behind the interior walls ...
BUT what a plain inner wall surface there - This is Farmers Market, which I would have expected to be a little more decorative.
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== HEY DECORATIONS IN COLUMBIA IF WE WANT (REDO) ==
HotelInterior1910.jpg
DontLetTheseGuys.jpg|Will fix this for REDDO
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