DEL.ICIO.USAJC TRAVEL NEWS
Frank Lloyd Wright’s work refurbished at Florida Southern
For The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, March 22, 2009
At first glance, you miss the details.
Florida Southern College
The Annie Pfeiffer Chapel was the first Wright-designed building completed on the campus. It is undergoing restoration.
Florida Southern College
Florida Southern College is restoring this chapel and 11 other of its famed Frank Lloyd Wright buildings.
Robin Hill
The Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, on the left, and smaller William H. Danforth Chapel, are among the dozen Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structures on the Florida Southern College Campus.
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The jewel-colored glass used in the construction of 60-year-old buildings. The greenish-brown copper eaves on a 1 1/2-mile covered walkway. Columns shaped like the orange trees that once filled the campus of Florida Southern College.
Those are some of the smallest details in the largest collection of buildings designed by influential 20th-century American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Wright’s buildings, which attract 30,000 visitors a year to the Lakeland, Fla., school, are attracting national attention at the same time the school has embarked on a $50 million restoration of the 12 structures built in the 1940s and ’50s.
Photos, drawings and other items spotlighting the campus will be featured in an exhibition May 15-Aug. 23 at New York’s Guggenheim Museum in honor of the 50th anniversary of the museum and Wright’s death.
“He was a genius, first and foremost, a genius,” tour guide Mark Tlachac said. He also could be charming, obstinate and egotistical, Tlachac added.
The architect designed more than 500 buildings in his lifetime and was a leader in the Prairie School movement that promoted architecture that blends organically into the natural environment. One of his most famous structures is Fallingwater, built over a waterfall in rural Pennsylvania.
Wright, who never graduated from college, was in his 70s when he was approached by Florida Southern President Ludd Spivey in 1938 and asked to bring his Prairie-style architecture to the campus.
The nearly 100-acre property was filled with orange groves and a few red brick buildings at the time. The budget was small, so students provided the labor in exchange for tuition during the construction of the first buildings. Among Wright’s contributions to the college is the architect’s largest water feature and his only planetarium and theater-in-the-round, Tlachac said.
The Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, the first building completed by Wright in 1941, features a concrete tower with decorative wrought-iron work in the shape of bowties, which Wright often wore. The tower and glass allow natural light to flood the chapel, which is being restored with a $350,000 grant from the federal Save America’s Treasures program.
Next door, the William H. Danforth Chapel is the only place you’ll see the leaded glass windows that many people associate with Wright. A simple plywood door opens in to the 75-seat chapel featuring a peaked wall with large red and yellow windows.
Perhaps the most dramatic element among Wright’s designs is the Water Dome, a decorative water feature composed of a circular basin surrounded by 75 jets that propel water 45 feet into the air before it falls back into the center of the basin, creating a canopy of water. Although the structure was built more than 60 years ago, the mechanics were not put in place until October 2007, following a $1 million renovation, when the Water Dome was first activated.
The school also has spent $1.6 million from a state grant to restore the esplanade, a 1 1/2-mile covered walkway that connects buildings. Taller than it appears, the low-slung roof will make even the vertically challenged feel like ducking at times.
Failed experiments, such as attempts to use sand to color the concrete, are apparent in some of the blocks used in the Seminar Building, which houses offices.
The design of the Lucius Pond Ordway Building, which was completed in 1952, is among the most simple on campus, and part of the roof bears the shape of halved triangles, reminiscent of Wright’s Taliesin West home in Arizona. The Ordway Building was meant to be a cafeteria and dining hall, but instead it was used for industrial arts and fine arts classes. It features Wright’s only theater-in-the-round, which is also being restored. He designed six other campus structures, but they weren’t built until after his death in 1959.
The campus’ restoration effort began in 2005 and will continue as the school acquires the funds.
The Child of the Sun Visitor Center, home to the former library, which features a semicircular terrace reading room with small windows near the ceiling, is a starting point for the tour and has a small gift area with books, videos and other items. On view are photos of students working on the structures, examples of Wright’s textile building blocks and a set of straight-backed plywood chairs that Wright recommended the students use to ensure perfect posture.
Maps and building information are available for self-guided tours, and some of the buildings are open to the public when school is in session.
IF YOU GO
Florida Southern College. 111 Lake Hollingsworth Drive, Lakeland, Fla. The “Child of the Sun” Visitor Center is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays-Fridays. Guided tours available at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; $10. The Water Dome operates four times a day, Monday through Sunday (10:15-11:30 a.m., 1-1:30 p.m., 2:30-3 p.m., 4:30-5:30 p.m.). 863-680-4444, www.flsouthern.edu/fllwctr.
WHERE TO STAY
The Terrace Hotel. Luxury downtown Lakeland hotel with accommodations that include suites. Rates start at $129. 329 Main St., 863-688-0800, www.terracehotel.com.
Hampton Inn. The chain has opened a new hotel at Lakeside Village, an open-air shopping center. Rates start at $126. 3630 Lakeside Village Blvd., 863-603-7600, www.hamptoninn.com.
WHERE TO EAT
Silver Ring Café. Excellent black bean soup and Cuban sandwiches draw a packed lunch crowd. $2.95-$5.35. 106 N. Tennessee Ave., 863-687-3283.
INFORMATION
Downtown Lakeland Partnership. www.downtownlakelandfl.com
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