Starbucks Miami mug: Discovery Series
The Miami Discovery mug shows pastel hotels that look like South Beach Art Deco, a long causeway over the bay, a DJ at turntables, falling dominoes that may stand for Little Havana's Domino Park, and a speedboat.
- Series
- Discovery Series
- Place
- Miami, Florida, USA
- Type
- Mug
- Released
- Not confirmed
- Capacity
- 14 fl ozstandard mug size
- SKU
- Not confirmed
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The Warhol tour that could not save a Miami Beach hotel
In 1980 Andy Warhol asked to see the old hotels of Miami Beach, and Barbara Capitman, who had helped found the Miami Design Preservation League three years earlier, gave him the tour [1]. A month later the Boulevard Hotel was demolished [1]. The New Yorker Hotel followed in under a year [1]. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Capitman worked tirelessly and at times chained herself to hotels; a photograph shows a police officer escorting her from a protest at the Senator Hotel, which came down in 1988 [1]. Still, the losses did something. Dismay over the New Yorker helped spur ordinances to preserve other structures [1], and a square-mile Art Deco district had already been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 [1]. The pastel hotels on the Miami mug (2) may be among the survivors.
The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.
What's on the mug
- 1MIAMI lettering
MIAMI is printed in yellow capitals across a dark green circle in the middle of the front. The circle sits behind most of the other drawings.
- 2Pastel hotels that look like South Beach Art Deco
Two flat-roofed buildings stand at the upper left: a blue and teal one with pink trim and a raised central tower, and an orange one with rows of windows and a rounded left corner. Their flat roofs, horizontal bands and central tower look like the 1930s hotels of the Art Deco district in South Beach, Miami Beach, but neither building can be matched to one named hotel. The mug doesn't name them.[1]
- 3Causeway over the bay, possibly to Miami Beach
A long, low bridge on a row of small arches, with thin lamp posts along the deck, runs over blue water to a group of tall towers at the right. A pink cloud floats above its left end, with a small teal vehicle on the deck, and orange clouds float above. It resembles the causeways that cross Biscayne Bay between Miami and Miami Beach, such as the Venetian Causeway, but the drawing has too little detail to say which one. The mug doesn't name it.[2]
- 4DJ at turntables, probably for Miami's dance-music scene
A DJ with orange hair in two buns, round glasses and a teal top works an orange deck with two turntables at the lower left; music notes float beside the lettering and colored stripes run from the deck toward the dominoes. The DJ may stand for Miami's electronic dance music scene, which fills the city each March during Miami Music Week, but the mug doesn't say so.[4]
- 5Dominoes, perhaps for Domino Park in Little Havana
Five orange and teal dominoes with white pips step down from the right of the lettering toward the lower left, where the DJ's colored stripes meet them. In Miami dominoes are closely tied to Maximo Gomez Park on Calle Ocho in Little Havana, nicknamed Domino Park, so they may refer to it, though the park itself is not drawn. The mug doesn't name it.[3]
- 6Speedboat
A long, low pink and orange speedboat with a driver at the wheel cuts through the water below the dominoes, leaving a white and teal spray behind it.
- 7Tall plant at the left edge
Long blue and green leaves with orange and pink shapes rise at the far left edge of the photo, cut off where the mug curves away. The rest of this plant is on the part of the wrap the photo does not show.
- 8Two palm trees
Two thin palm trees with teal and orange fronds stand to the right of the hotels (2), at the top edge of the green circle.
The photo shows one side of the mug. The back and the area behind the handle are out of view.
Collector notes
- The DJ at the lower left and the dominoes at the right fill the lower half of the circle, which sets this mug apart from the Florida mug.
- Florida, Orlando and The Florida Keys also have Discovery mugs on our checklists; this one is lettered MIAMI.
Before you buy
The photo shows one side of this 14 fl oz Discovery Series mug, so the back and the area behind the handle are out of view. Starbucks also made Miami mugs in the Been There, Icon and You Are Here series, and the DJ and dominoes in the lower half set this one apart from the Florida mug.
