A LEGACY THAT'S "WRIGHT" AT FLORIDA SOUTHERN

I love college campuses! 

Yes, after doing the round of college visits with my son almost six years ago, not to mention my own college experience, including years of post graduate work for continuing education as a teacher, I can attest these venerable institutions of learning ooze intellect and a bounty of beautiful minds eager for discourse (okay, maybe I’m poring it on a little thick).

But have you noticed the best of those campuses also offer acres and acres of awe-inspiring architecture (covered in the requisite ivy) and large oaks flanking numerous quads that lead to large clock towers or grand libraries or student unions; all conspire to elevate learning to something akin to a spiritual experience. 

Indeed, Jimmy was in seventh heaven several months ago when we got the chance to visit a Florida college campus, with friends Joan and Jerry, that boasts the largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) buildings in the world.   Jimmy has been an adoring fan of Wright since his undergraduate days studying architecture at the University of Chicago.  I’m an adoring fan of Jimmy; and obviously college campuses.   

Voila; Florida Southern College (FSC)!  The campus was indeed impressive.  

No FLW collection of buildings would be complete without his Usonian designed house.

No ivy that I could see, but “out of the ground, and into the light, a child of the sun” was born in 1938 in the midst of the Florida orange grove overlooking picturesque Lake Hollingsworth.  FLW’s "child of the sun", as he dubbed his campus design, was the brainchild of then college President Ludd Spivey. 

Ludd Spivey, President of FSC from 1925 to 1957, single-handedly set out to transform the oldest private college (it has ties with the Methodist Church) in the state of Florida (the campus is located in central Florida between Tampa and Orlando) into a national landmark.  In 1938 Spivey sent a telegram to America’s foremost architect.  That telegram read, “Desire conference with you concerning plans for great education temple in Florida.”   

Did I mention that FLW was Methodist? 

Wright was 67 when he began work on his "child in the sun".

The rest is history, as they say; eighteen buildings were part of the master design built around a spectacular central fountain (the Water Dome was my personal favorite, one of the largest in the world, a perfect circle with a 160 foot diameter.)

Each year in April, Dr. Anne Kerr, FSC President, and graduating seniors, take a dip in the Water Dome.

Those eighteen buildings were all connected by a network of covered walkways  called esplanades;

One and a half miles of esplanades cover the campus.

The esplanades made it easy to dodge the usual afternoon shower.

twelve buildings were completed over a twenty year period before FLW died in 1959.  The other six have never been built.  

The first and most spectacular of those buildings was the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, all the more spectacular because it was constructed with student labor (mostly females) when World War II put a dent in the available male workforce.  Obviously Rosie wasn’t just a Riveter working on munitions.   

Students and faculty affectionately call FLW's Pfeiffer chapel "the bicycle rack" or the "bow-tie".

Three years after the completion of the chapel, in 1941, the tower collapsed, falling into the skylights.  I hate when that happens.  And while Wright tried to blame the collapse on the student labor, faulty engineering was determined to be the cause.  Wright redesigned the skylights before repairs were made.

FLW's "flower tower" has rarely sported flowers; watering was a problem.

The interior of the chapel was amazing, the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright evident!  The sand-cast blocks used in the construction of the chapel incorporated colored glass insets which created an amazing kaleidoscope of rich color along the walls.   

Doesn't look like much from here, but inside, awesome!

My window on FLW's chapel was obviously pretty small.

The chapel, so named after a generous benefactor (you guessed it; Annie Pfeiffer), seemed to vibrate with energy.  It was indeed a holy place, one in which photographs were prohibited.  Oops!      

This picture hardly does the chapel justice. It was astounding.

Our 90 minute walking tour of the Wright buildings surrounding the central Water

Joan, Jimmy, Jerry - beautiful minds, for sure.

More beautiful minds wondering FSC campus.

Dome included the original ET Roux Library (we did not go inside), renamed the Thad Buckner Building in 1968.  The circular reading room was renamed the Hollis Room after another Florida Southern benefactor.

Wright was obviously a fan of the circle.

Few could intersect lines and planes like FLW.

The rectangular portion of the original library became Administrative Offices.

All of FLW's buildings were originally constructed without air conditioning in central Florida! OMG!

Wright would have been disappointed to learn the new ET Roux Library was built near the Water Dome, on the highest point on the campus.  Wright once said, “No house should ever be on a hill or on anything.  It should be of the hill.  Belonging to it.  Hill and house should live together, each the happier for the other.” 

That would be Wright’s Kentuck Knob house, the one he built for I.N. Hagan just east of Uniontown, Pennsylvania and seven miles from his most renowned house, Fallingwater.  Both structures definitely “belong to” the site on which they were erected.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Wright’s protégée, Nils Schweizer, designed the new ET Roux Library that was built in 1968, nine years after the death of Frank Lloyd Wright.  Notwithstanding the “house ON a hill” look, the clean lines/curves are reminiscent of Wright’s genius.   

Love the lines/curves of the new library.

The fountains are rarely on full speed ahead.

I’d imagine it’s both a blessing and a curse being steward to the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright structures in the world.  You got a look at the cream of the crop.  The twelve buildings have not aged well.  I can only hope.  Wright’s designs were brilliant but not always practical.  Like some of my wild ideas! 

Fortunately the uniqueness of the Wright collection caught the attention of the World Monuments Fund, which monitors important architectural and cultural sites around the world (yeah, news to me, too), resulting in Wright’s “child of the sun" being placed on the Fund’s list of 100 most-endangered sites.

That designation should help with the $50 million price tag for restorations to this National Landmark. We were happy to make our small donation courtesy of our tour and one incredible volunteer tour guide.  

Florida Southern College was a beautiful, intellectual and spiritual oasis (no, FSC is not my alma mater), despite the lack of ivy covered walls.