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S.251 through S.258 –Florida
Southern College, “Child of the Sun” Campus, Johnson Avenue at Frank Lloyd
Wright Way (formerly McDonald Street), Lakeland, Florida As is well known, the college campus
is the largest collection of FLW buildings anywhere. To help save costs for the cash-strapped
college, students helped construct several buildings. The use of native materials in Florida
meant that the bricks were made of limestone, sand, water, and crushed
seashells. They were then baked in the
sun. One of the few non-native
materials selected was copper to line the Esplanade roofs. Any visit should begin in the
visitors center in the William M. Hollis Exhibition & Seminar Room,
located in the original library designed by Wright. The visitors center includes exhibits of Wright models,
drawings, and furniture, as well as a gift shop. Wright designed 18 buildings. Depending
on how you count them, between 7 and 13 were built. Six were unbuilt, but one eventually came
to life as a new exhibition and visitors center. Three seminar buildings have been combined
into a single building, and the Administration Building is actually two
separate buildings connected by a short walkway. Credit as a “building” is also given to the
Esplanades (a 1.5 mile series of covered walkways) and the Water Dome, a
reflecting pool. Typical for a Wright project,
furniture was also designed by the architect.
Students built the furniture in their woodshop and in sewing
classes. Only the Danforth
Chapel continues to use the original furnishings. Original examples from other buildings are
shown in the visitors center
exhibition hall. Much of the construction was
undertaken during the war years.
Female students bore the brunt of the project as many of their male
classmates served the nation. In
exchange for their hard work, though, students received free or discounted
tuition. I suppose one of the amazing
aspects of this project was that Wright would allow his control over detail
to yield to Dr. Spivey’s need to build his campus with amateur labor. Only through such uncharacteristic
compromise do we have the opportunity to view this masterpiece today. There are other buildings on campus
not designed by Wright, although some pay homage to the Master. At least one has caused outright confusion:
the 1968 library (designed by Florida architect Nils Schweizer,
a student of Wright’s). The 1968
library bears the same name as the original 1945 structure Wright
designed. All of the Wright buildings
are within easy walking distance of each other, and are located in the
northwest corner of the college at the corner of Johnson Avenue and Frank
Lloyd Wright Way (formerly McDonald Street).
A self-guided tour map is available in the visitors center. Photographed in 1995 and February
2010. The entire college project was
assigned Opus number T3805. Tourist information brochure (after
opening of visitor center) (PDF) |
TIMELINE
1883 – Florida Southern
College founded
1938 – Frank Lloyd Wright is
approached by college President Ludd Spivey. Wright begins designing the “Child of the
Sun” campus, with 18 structures; most are eventually constructed. Work begins with the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel.
1941 – First building
completed: the Pfeiffer Chapel
1940-1941 – Second
“building” built: the three Seminar Buildings
1941-1945 – E.T. Roux
library construction; Esplanade construction begins in 1941. Esplanades would be added through 1958 as new
Wright-designed buildings were built.
1942-1952 – Construction of
Industrial Arts Building
1945-1946 – Benjamin Fine and Emile E. Watson
Administration Buildings construction
1948 – Water Dome completed;
it would later be demolished, and then rebuilt
1953-1958 – Construction of
Science & Cosmography Building
1954-1955 – Danforth (Minor) Chapel built
1968 – New library is built,
and the Water Dome is demolished to make way for a pedestrian plaza
1992 – Visitor Center opens
in the former E.T. Roux Library
2007 – restored Water Dome
re-opens
2010 – Ceremonial
groundbreaking for new visitor center in a new structure to built using one of
FLW’s unrealized designs for the campus, a faculty residence LINK
TO NEWS ARTICLE
2013 – Visitor center opens
LINKS TO PHOTOGRAPHS OF BUILDINGS
The buildings each have their own
separate pages (including pages for interiors).
Click on the description or the photo to go to those websites:
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A few motifs are repeated in the Wright-designed
buildings:
Look closely – the cutouts are
imbedded with art glass
Wooden mold for making bricks, as seen
in visitors center exhibit
The columns’ design is based on the
orange trees that once dotted central Florida
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Two future architecture buffs enjoy a
moment on the Wright-like plaque donated by the college’s 1956 senior class
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Simplified map to
FLW-designed buildings on campus
Note: many
buildings in this area are not
designed by Wright; the most commonly mistaken building
is the newer
Roux Library, located directly north of the Water Dome. The actual library
designed by Wright
– the
original Roux Library – is southwest of the Water Dome and is circled in yellow
on this map.
Visitor
parking is entered from Johnson Avenue (a one-way street).
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Revised
05/05/2018 |
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