Ask most people to name a few famous architects and chances are they’ll say Frank Lloyd Wright. And no one else.
His masterpiece home, Fallingwater, 70 miles east of Pittsburgh, his circular Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, his desert gem Taliesin West, outside of Phoenix, and his charming prairie homes in the Chicago suburb Oak Park, are all far from Florida.
But, the most concentrated number of Wright-designed buildings in the world are on the Florida Southern College campus in Lakeland. And, they are open to the public.
Wright designed and oversaw the construction of 12 buildings between 1938 and 1958 on the campus he called “Child of the Sun.’’
All on the west side of campus, near Lake Hollingsworth, the buildings include a library with a circular reading room, and two chapels, side by side and both featuring concrete walls with colorful glass inserts that Wright said reminded him of Florida flowers and butterflies.
Red, green, blue and yellow – the inserts sparkle like sea glass in the Florida sunshine.
One of Wright’s trademarks was to always incorporate buildings in their natural settings and to use local materials when he could. He did this in Lakeland, where he nestled buildings into natural berms and along slopes, then included whole walls of glass windows that open onto nature.
He liked mimicking nature, too. The concrete columns on esplanades, or covered walkways, that connect many of his campus buildings are shaped like orange trees – and are spaced 18 feet apart, the same distance that orange trees are spaced in nearby groves, says Carol Hall, who leads tours of Wright’s buildings.
At the Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center, visitors can go into a Usonian House, designed by Wright, that was built in 2013.
Wright created the blueprints for it in 1939 and envisioned professors living in his Usonian homes in neighborhoods across from campus. He figured the 1,300-square-foot homes would cost $20,000 each, which he thought was affordable – in 1939.
That never happened.
His plans were resurrected for this one, and construction – because of the craftsmanship and materials – cost $1.3 million.
Like many Wright homes, it features low ceilings in the entranceway, then soaring ceilings in a large gathering place, with a fireplace, built-in dining table and couch, other Wright hallmarks.
The house also features his signature Cherokee red poured concrete floor, floor-to-ceiling windows looking out toward the yard and built-in bookcases. And, like in many of his campus buildings, colorful cast glass sparkles from tiny indentations in concrete walls.
Across the street, on campus, visitors can see his other creations, starting with his Water Dome, a 160-foot-diameter fountain that was renovated in 2007 and sprays water 45 feet in the air at full blast. Wright called it “the fountain of knowledge.”
Then, there’s “Mister Wright’s Library,” as Hall calls it, built from 1942-1945 to house books and a circular reading room, but now used for meetings and lectures. It still has Wright’s beautiful wood desks, examples of his chairs and another looming fireplace.
Nearby, a newer library, designed by one of Wright’s students, blends with Wright’s creations.
Two of his most picturesque buildings are chapels – the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel and the William H. Danforth Chapel, both still used for services, weddings and other special events.
Both have low-slung entranceways that make you feel as if you have to bow to enter, roofs soaring skyward and lots of glass windows.
The Annie Pfeiffer Chapel has a wall of windows similar to those in Fallingwater, a home Wright designed over a waterfall in 1939 that’s now opened to the public as a museum.
It also has soaring concrete designs in the shape of thunderbirds and a door at each of the chapel’s four corners instead of a central front door, which makes it challenging for brides to make a grand entrance, Hall quips.
The Danforth Chapel is smaller and features a wall of red, yellow and clear glass behind the lectern. Like in the larger chapel, Cherokee red cushions pad wooden benches.
The Polk County Science Building has other Wright touches: the columns on the organic sciences side of the building are concrete shaped like orange trees, like those on the covered walkways. Those on the industrial sciences side are all straight lines made of aluminum. Hall said Wright tested them in his shower to be sure they’d withstand rain and heat.
A theater in the round in Wright’s Ordway Arts Building has such excellent acoustics that an actor standing in the center of the circular space can say lines in a normal voice and they’ll be heard by everyone in the room.
Whispers from the entrance of the theater distinctly carry all along the circular wall to someone standing halfway around the circle. This is the only theater in the round Wright designed.
Surrounding the Ordway Arts Building and other Wright buildings are ponds, orange trees, flowering bushes, a rose garden, smaller fountains, hedges and lawns, typical of Wright’s “harmonious union of art and nature.”
“We have lots of gardens and lots of green space, and that’s all Wright’s influence,” Hall says.
And, thanks to Wright, The Princeton Review named the 3,000-student Florida Southern College campus the most beautiful in America, she says.
Wright himself wasn’t shy about bragging about his creations. When the then-college president refused to tear down the perfectly attractive red brick buildings that pre-dated Wright’s, the architect told him that was fine, that they’d just be “ugly bridesmaids to my beautiful brides.”
Tips for the trip
Florida Southern College in Lakeland is home to 12 Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. The Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center, Frank Lloyd Wright’s campus headquarters, is at 750 Frank Lloyd Wright Way, across from campus, next door to a Wright gift shop.
Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., daily; closed major holidays.
Tours start at the gift shop. Guided hour-long tours are $20 and are given Monday through Saturday at 10 a.m.; 2 1/2-hour, in-depth guided tours are offered daily at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., and cost $35. A 10-percent discount is given for reservations made online at FlSouthern.edu. Hit “About” at top of screen, scroll down to Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture, and look for the reservations button.
Reservations can also be made by calling (863) 680-4597.
Self-guided tours are another option. Those brochures are sold at the gift shop.
Chapel Poem
William H. Danforth, who paid for the chapel on campus named for him, asked Wright to feature this poem within it somewhere. On a wall in an alcove by the entrance, it says:
“DEDICATED TO
THE WORSHIP OF GOD
WITH THE PRAYER
THAT HERE
IN COMMUNION WITH THE HIGHEST
THOSE WHO ENTER
MAY ACQUIRE THE SPIRITUAL POWER
TO ASPIRE NOBLY
ADVENTURE DARINGLY
SERVE HUMBLY’’
By Karen Haymon Long
Published October 10, 2018