Rolling Ledfords: Florida Southern College

Sunday, January 15, 2017

After church today, we picked up Bill and Jan at their motorhome and drove to Lakeland to tour the Florida Southern College campus - specifically the Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings and walkways. He is responsible for thirteen buildings on the campus and some others have been designed to compliment them. It is the largest collection of his buildings in any one place.

Our first stop was to check in at the Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center to check in and then wander the gift shop and outdoor setting that included a statue of Frank Lloyd Wright,

a fountain of his design

and the Usonian House next door

that was recently built using his plans. (it was suppose to be built along Lake Hollingworth on the campus as a home for faculty along with several others with the windows across the front facing the water but lack of funds kept that from happening)

The college itself was sponsored by the Methodist church but had been floundering after four moves - two as a result of fires and all seeking a spot in Florida that would attract attendees. Then it found itself losing students due to the depression. In 1938 in a daring move the president of the college at that time, Dr. Spivey, decided to call the "architect of the year" according to Time Magazine and see if he would design some buildings and draw attention to the campus. Even though there was no money to pay for the work, Frank Lloyd Wright was intrigued and agreed to draw up a master plan naming it the "Child of the Sun" campus seeing structures rising out of the ground just as children do as they grow and mature. He loved all the orange trees, hills and lake and designed the campus around them.

At our first stop we had an opportunity to see how buildings were built into hills as is this Watson-Fine Administration Building. In the center is the "child of the sun" pole with lights on it that are turned on a couple of times of year for significant events on campus.

This building is actually two now connected with an excellent example of the "posts" he used around the campus designed to look like orange trees. It takes quite an imagination to see them but the squares in the upper park are the oranges. The green copper design along the edge of the roof (in some places it is copper) is a representation of all the tree leaves.

Here is a side/front view

The walkways are beautiful and truly pull the campus together especially since they go to all of the Frank Lloyd buildings and none of the others.. The angles, gardens and views created by those walkways do add a special beauty to the whole place. In this shot you can see the lake in the distance and the Science Building on the left.

The "ceilings" of the walkways are low with openings that are to represent the sun and its rays with plantings below each of the "sun openings".

Each of the posts are also an orange tree with the green leaf cooper along the top edge

These "cardboard palms" were picked as the "proper" planting for this area by the chapels by FLW.

There are two chapels side by side. The one on the left is the first building to be constructed - the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel and is considered by many to be a true paradigm of Wright's work in that it exhibits all his trademark architectural elements. The cantilevered wings give the impression the building is floating above ground. The bow tie design in the steeple is the college's trademark design seen on all their literature and signs. On the right is the William H. Danforth Chapel.