By Amara is a weekly art and history podcast hosted by Amara Andrew. Each week, we’ll take a quick look at the goings on in the art and history world.
This week, we’re discussing: the tomb of Nefertiti; the future of punk haven, CBGB; yet another piece of Keith Haring wall art; and an art collection that’s selling for over $1 billion.
Subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!
MY MINIMALIST PODCAST KIT
For links to all the tools I use to make my podcast happen, check out the post here!
Who is Amara?
Hi there! My name’s Amara and I’m a videographer, historian, illustrator, and creator living in Chicago.
In my previous post and video, I outlined the 3 major architectural styles of Miami Beach. This post is a mini deep dive into Art Deco.
So, South Beach is known for its amazing collection of Art Deco architecture. Most of these buildings were slated to be torn down throughout the 1970s & 1980s, but were saved by Barbara Capitman as well as the Miami Design Preservation League. (We’ll talk more about them in another post, so stay tuned!)
So, first, what is Art Deco?
It’s a general design style that started in 1925 in France with the Universelle Exposition. It encompasses basically all forms of “visual art.”
Generally, Art Deco architecture in South Beach is called “Tropical Art Deco,” but there are a few sub-genres within that including:
Streamline Moderne,
Med-deco,
And Depression Moderne,
So, how can you identify an Art Deco building? Here are some unique features to look out for:
symmetrical design,
ziggurat (stepped) roofline,
glass blocks,
curved edges and corners,
flora and fauna,
groups of 3,
and round porthole windows.
Miami Beach Art Deco is a very specific type of architecture. The buildings feature shade overhangs (a.k.a. eyebrows) to block out the intense Miami sun!
What’s your favorite Art Deco structure? Let me know in the comments below! Tata!
In my previous post and video, I outlined the 3 major architectural styles of Miami Beach. This video is a little bit more of a deep dive into MiMo.
So, first, what is MiMo?
MiMo is an acronym for Miami Modernism. It’s a style of architecture from the Post WWII era (1945-1960s) that originated in Miami and Miami Beach. Architects who created the MiMo style were heavily influenced by the International Style.
MiMo buildings were specifically created to respond to the subtropical climate of Miami and Miami Beach, but done in a resort glamour kind of way.
Now, you primarily see MiMo in Mid and North Miami Beach, however, there are a couple buildings in South Beach you can view, including Lincoln Road Mall, the Clevelander on Ocean Dr., and the Walgreens at 14th & Collins.
MiMo buildings made extensive use of plate glass, concrete, and glass mosaic tile. Interiors featured high-grade marble and rare hardwoods.
So, how can you identify a MiMo structure? Here are some unique features to look out for:
asymmetrical angles
Delta wings
Sweeping curved walls
Cutouts
kidney and amoeba shapes
futuristic/space age forms
mosaic murals
and shiny anodized aluminum in gold and copper.
What’s your favorite MiMo building? Let me know in the comments below! Tata!
By Amara is a weekly art and history podcast hosted by Amara Andrew. Each week, we’ll take a quick look at the goings on in the art and history world.
This week, we’re discussing the return of a 2,000 year old relic to Italy, a desert city that took 50 years to build, one of the largest diamonds in history, and how to save a town from war.
MY MINIMALIST PODCAST KIT
For links to all the tools I use to make my podcast happen, check out the post here!
Who is Amara Andrew?
Hi there! My name’s Amara and I’m a videographer, historian, illustrator, and creator living in Chicago.
In my previous post and video, I outlined the 3 major architectural styles of Miami Beach. This post is a little bit more of a deep dive into Mediterranean Revival.
While South Beach is known for its amazing Art Deco architecture, it’s also known for having some really beautiful Mediterranean Revival architecture, most famously the Versace Mansion!
So, first, what is Mediterranean Revival?
It’s an architecture style that evokes an Old European feel, specifically that of coastal palaces in France, Italy, and Spain. This style of architecture was extremely popular throughout the 1920s and 1930s in the U.S. and was particularly popular throughout coastal resorts and towns in Florida and California.
So, how can you identify a Mediterranean Revival building? Here are some unique features to look out for:
clay barrel tile roofs,
rough stucco walls,
decorative columns,
arched windows,
wrought iron gates,
carved stonework,
bell towers,
and picturesque courtyards.
What’s your favorite Mediterranean Revival structure? Let me know in the comments!
Here are 3 things you may not have known about the history of the Margarita!
#1
The recipe for the Margarita may be based off a popular 19th century cocktail called “The Daisy.”
First featured in the 1876 publication of “The Bar-Tender’s Guide” by Jerry “The Professor” Thomas, the Daisy was super popular in the U.S. throughout the late 1800s.
The Daisy is actually a family of cocktails, meaning that the base ingredients generally stay the same, but the liquor is changed to suit the drinker’s preference.
The base of the Daisy generally consisted of gum syrup, lemon juice, orange cordial, alcohol, seltzer water, and ice.
Also of note is that margarita is Spanish for daisy. Why does this matter? You’ll find out in our last factoid!
#2
The earliest recorded recipe for the Margarita is from 1937 and consisted of tequila, cointreau, and, (get this!), lemon juice, not lime!
#3
Tequila cocktails became very popular in the U.S. starting in the 1920s because of Prohibition. U.S. citizens would drive across the border to Mexico and would bring back bottles of tequila with them.
Because of this boozy tourism, tequila cocktails became very popular starting in the 1920s and throughout the 1930s, possibly leading to the creation of the Margarita.
So most of us have probably heard the old story of how people during the Victorian era were so sexually repressed that they even covered the legs of their furniture, but that’s actually a fake story!
This myth was started by 19th century English writer and British Navy Captain, Frederick Marryat. Marryat authored many books throughout his life, including popular sea adventure stories.
In his book, Diaryin America: With Remarks On Its Institutions, published in 1839, Marryat recounts his experiences in the young U.S. In this book, he wrote about two peculiar interactions he had while visiting America.
The first incident stems from an anecdote where a young woman that Marryat was traveling with scraped her knee.
He later asked if her “leg” was okay and apparently she found this so invasive that she replied that a gentleman only refers to “limbs” in the presence of a lady and never a “leg.”
The second instance further pushes this idea of puritanical purity to a whole new level.
While escorting a lady to a girls’ seminary, Marryat entered the reception room and noticed that the headmistress had done something weird with the pianoforte. He stated “…she had dressed all these four limbs in modest little trousers, with frills at the bottom of them!”
When he asked the headmistress why they were covered, she allegedly claimed it was to “preserve in their utmost purity the ideas of the young ladies” under her charge.
Now, Victorians did cover their furniture with little do-dids like this, but only to protect the furniture from wear and tear, and not to keep young girls from being seduced by wily pianos.
But that didn’t matter, this anecdote caught on like wildfire.
The British press at the time picked up Marryat’s story and ran with it, suggesting that American society was puritanical and had ridiculously fastidious manners.
This myth was further propagated by 20th century writers as a shorthand for Victorian repression, but the story backfired and started to reference British sexual repression rather than American.
Did you know that the term “slip them a mickey” may have come from Chicago?
There once was a man named Mickey Finn who, alongside his wife, Kate, opened a bar on S. State Street called the “Lone Star Saloon and Palm Garden Restaurant” in 1896.
It was located in a portion of Chicago called Whiskey Row, which was a pretty rough and tumble neighborhood in its heyday. His place was located on the west side of State St., between Harrison and Congress, at the southern end of Whiskey row near Harrison.
At this very saloon, Mickey ran a school for young pickpockets. The “Garden” of the Palm Garden was a robbing den where his students would pick the pockets of drunkards at the bar.
Mickey, wanting to increase his odds of being able to rob his patrons, created a signature drink called the “Mickey Finn Special.”
The Mickey Finn Special was a special drink consisting of alcohol, Tabasco, snuff-soaked water, and chloral hydrate, a white liquid that would knock the drinker out in seconds.
Women who were paid to flirt with men at the Saloon were instructed to encourage men to order the “Mickey Finn Special.”
Once the “Mickey Finn Special” knocked them out, Mickey and his men would drag the unconscious man into a backroom, strip them of their clothes and money, and then throw them into the back alley.
The person would wake up not knowing what would have happened.
While the Chicago police closed Mickey’s saloon on December 16, 1903, the term “Slip them a Mickey” is still used today!
Did you know that there’s a building in Chicago that’s covered in 24k gold? Yes, dahling, it’s true!
The Carbide & Carbon building was created by the Burnham Brothers in 1929. And, yes, before you ask, their dad was famed Chicago architect, Daniel Burnham.
Imitation gold leaf was originally considered for this 37-story Art Deco structure, but was ultimately rejected in favor of real gold because why the hell not?
But don’t grab your ladder just yet! Even though this is 24k gold, it’s only 1 five-thousandths of an inch thick.
Legend has it that this building was created to look like a bottle of champagne, though, this might just be a critique on the excesses of the 1920s.
Now, not only is this building unique because it’s literally covered in gold, but it also reflects 2 major events in the history of the Chicago Loop:
First is the addition of the Michigan Ave. bridge in 1920 that extended the formerly part-industrial, part-residential area of River North with the commercial and retail-saturated area of the Loop.
The Carbide & Carbon building also reflects the 1923 zoning ordinance that aimed at providing more light in buildings at street level.
Also of note is that this was one of the last grand buildings created in Chicago before the Great Depression.
There were even plans to actually build a sister building to this structure, but with the market crash of 1929, these plans were scrapped real quick.
