Turn cameras toward Mid-Century Modern
In the 1955 book “Auntie Mame,” the irrepressible title character tries a stint as an interior decorator and finds she must suppress her love of modern style. Instead, her clients demand Versailles-inspired, gilt-trimmed fussiness.
Finally, a demand that Mame emulate the décor of Miami Beach’s Fountainbleau Hotel proves too much, and the good Auntie instead fills the absent client’s home with open spaces, stainless steel and cubist art. The pull of the modern was just too strong.
Mame would be happy these days, because the Mid-Century Modern architecture that was ultra-new in her day has now been around long enough to qualify for historic preservation, and Orlando’s Historic Preservation Board has chosen it as the theme for the board’s 2018 calendar contest.
Orlando has long produced an annual free calendar displaying handsome black-and-white photos to raise awareness about its historic resources, which include six historic districts and more than 50 local and national landmarks.
Over the years, themes for calendar photos have ranged from the city’s various residential districts to kinds of structures — such as train stations, bungalows and landmark signs. The contest seeks original photos, not vintage images.
This year’s deadline for submissions is July 14 at 5 p.m. Photo subjects must be at least 50 years old (generally, 1938-1968) and must be within Orlando’s city limits. Entrants may submit up to three images, and each photographer whose picture is selected receives a $100 honorarium. crete created visually strong buildings that represented America’s social progressiveness, emerging corporate powers, and advancing technologies,” according to the contest notes. “It’s a style that should be celebrated and preserved as part of our American heritage.” Mid-Century Modern residences were often single-story, horizontal structures that featured glass walls, low-pitch to saw-tooth roofs, and unconventional schemes that emphasized architectural creativity, the notes continue.
In addition to residences, builders of banks, offices, hotels, government buildings, and utility companies also favored the Mid-Century Modern style during the 1940s through 1960s. Orlando examples include the 1960s OUC administration building, designed by architect Richard Boone Rogers, that in 2013 was renovated to become the Aloft Orlando Downtown hotel at 500 S. Orange Ave. the full guidelines, available on the city's website at www.cityoforlando.net/city-planning/boards/ historic-preservation-board/boardcalendars/ (or just google “Orlando Historic Preservation Calendar 2018,” and you should find the guidelines fine, too).
Questions? Call Richard Forbes, 407-246-3350, or Heather Bonds, 407-246-3416, at the city’s Historic Preservation Office.
For examples of Mid-Century Modern style that range beyond Orlando, visit the Central Florida Modern website of the nonprofit Nils M. Schweizer Fellows at centralfloridamodern.com.
I’m looking forward to teaching “Florida Goes to the Movies” in the Rollins Center for Lifelong Learning program in June. We’ll meet June 8, 15, 22, and 29 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and have fun revisiting films from “The Yearling” to the aquatic musicals of Esther Williams and more.
The curriculum includes other history classes, too. Visit www.rollins.edu/rcll/senior (click “Summer 2017 Course Brochure”) or call 407-646-1577.