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Florida Southern College

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Florida Southern College

Annie Pfeiffer Chapel and Esplanade

Credit

Wikipedia Commons

Site overview

Beginning in 1938, Frank Lloyd Wright and Florida Southern College president Ludd M. Spivey created one of the most important campuses in the United States. The pioneering modern design strongly differed from the Beaux-Arts principles that had long dominated campus planning. Over the next two decades, much of Wright’s master plan was realized and the campus represents the largest collection of Wright-designed buildings on a single site, including ten buildings of various sizes and functions, a large water feature called the Water Dome, and approximately 1.5 miles of covered walkways known collectively as the Esplanade. Within Wright’s career, the campus was large and complex enough to uniquely integrate a number of the architect’s key preoccupations during his career such as explorations on the theme of “organic architecture.” This entailed, in part, forms and materials appropriate to a particular site or region; the use of a comprehensive modular system for planning and construction; the use of concrete and textile blocks in construction; and, notably, one of the few examples of his work that three-dimensionally explores his ideas about creating community.

Primary classification

Education (EDC)

Terms of protection

National Historic Register Architectural District (6/11/75)

Designations

U.S. National Historic Landmark, designated on March 6, 2012

Author(s)

Peter A. Watson, Jr. | | 2/2/2011

How to Visit

Daily public tours

Location

111 Lake Hollingsworth Drive
Lakeland, FL, 33801

Country

US
More visitation information

Case Study House No. 21

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Annie Pfeiffer Chapel and Esplanade
Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Designer(s)

Frank Lloyd Wright

Architect

Nationality

American

William Wesley Peters

Architect

Nils Sweitzer

Kenneth Lockhart

Other designers

Frank Lloyd Wright, William Wesley Peters, Nils Sweitzer, Kenneth Lockhart (all Taliesin Fellowship)

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Commission

May 1938

Completion

1940

Commission / Completion details

In May, 1938, Wright made his first site visit to Lakeland. During 1938-39, Wright worked on the drawings for the Campus Master Plan The completed buildings (original names) from this plan are: Annie M. Pfeiffer Chapel (1938-40)Esplanade (1940-58)Seminars (1941)E.T. Roux Library (1941-45)Watson & Fine Administration Building (1946-48)Swimming Pool & Outdoor Theater (1947-49)Waterdome (partially completed in 1947)Industrial Arts & Domestic Sciences Building (1950-52)Polk County Science Building (1953-58)William H. Danforth Chapel (1954-55)

Original Brief

In April 1938, Florida Southern College (FSC) President Ludd Spivey (1925-57) wrote a telegram to Wright asking for an appointment to discuss a “great educational temple in Florida.” Originally located on Clearwater Beach, FSC decided to move inland to an un-built site in Lakeland in 1925. The Great Depression interrupted the creation of the new campus, so the college was only partially completed by the late 1930s. Spivey had managed to create a $1 million building fund and contacted Wright to discuss plans for a chapel/auditorium, administrative offices, a library, and additional classrooms.

Significant Alteration(s) with Date(s)

Pfeiffer Chapel rebuilt in 1944 by Wright after its was destroyed by a hurricane. Multiple building interiors and some exteriors were altered by FSC as a result of changes in use to administrative/academic offices: Seminars, (1958-59,1964-65), Roux Library (1980s) Polk County Science Building (1980s-90s). Other buildings retain their original use but have been internally subdivided (Industrial Arts 1980s) changing their original spatial relationships. In addition, the introduction of airconditioning ductwork not contemplated in the original design has altered internal sightlines.

Current Use

The Wright-designed buildings are all still part of an active college campus even if their individual uses may have shifted over time.

Current Condition

Improving:Physical degradation of the original building fabric over time coupled with architectural degradation caused by the campus’s redeployment of spaces and continuing expansion had caused a critical situation by the mid-2000s. A major restoration program was begun in 2006. The Esplanades (covered walkways) were restored with a state grant and the Waterdome, a central feature of Wright’s 1938 site plan, was completed in 2007.

General Description

Wright’s design for FSC. which he called “A Child of the Sun” was built around complex site plan featuring a waterdome formed by a circular pool and fountain system, and a network of covered walkways with a strong diagonal emphasis that connect all of the 12 surviving Wright-designed building. The reinforced concrete buildings, constructed over a nearly twenty year period, vary considerably in appearance but are stylistically related to the complex angular and rounded geometries of Wright’s post-WWII work.

Construction Period

1938-58

Original Physical Context

The western campus of Florida Southern College occupies a thirty acre site that was originally planted with an orange grove on a gently sloping hillside at the edge of Lake Hollingsworth, in Lakeland Florida.

Technical

Wright’s buildings were executed in reinforced concrete, glass, and native cypress. In addition to conventional concrete mixtures, Wright developed his own version of coquina, a limestone conglomerate incorporating shell fragments and quartz sands that was introduced by the Spanish in Southeastern Florida in the colonial era. The wall construction employed a variant of Wright’s textile block system originally developed in the 1920s but at FSC he employed a rectangular rather than square block form. The concrete blocks were molded onsite using specialized molds that imprinted textures on their faces and a series of exterior grooves on their sides which were used to hold steel rebar. The blocks were laid up without mortar. The structural stability of the wall was created by a “weave” of steel rebar running vertically and horizontally in the block grooves held in place by grout. To manage construction costs Wright required incoming FSC students of FSC to manufacture and assemble the textile blocks used at the college as part of a work/study program.

Social

Wright’s project at FSC is part of the larger post-war expansion of post-secondary education in the United States and new ideas of campus planning.

Cultural & Aesthetic

FSC is major expression of Wright’s philosophy of organic architecture in which form and function are united (rather than form following function). His reliance on indigenous materials (coquina, cypress), on-site manufacturing techniques using semi-skilled labor, day-lighting, and passive ventilation, all anticipate trends in the Sustainable Design movement in later years.

Historical

Frank Lloyd Wright is a singular figure in American architecture and although the majority of this project was conceived during the expansive second wave of post-World War II Modernism, The design, engineering, and, construction methods used by Wright at FSC relate more to his own personal history of earlier projects and experiments in the 1920s and 1930s than to the work of other prominent modernist architects of the time.

General Assessment

Florida Southern College is an underappreciated masterpiece of mid-twentieth century modern design. FSC includes the largest collection of buildings (12) on a single site designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. More importantly, the buildings were conceived as a complete work of art incorporating architecture and landscape. FSC is Wright’s only fully realized campus master plan and a full realization of his mature post-war style. While some architectural and physical degradation to the campus has occurred over the past fifty years, the ongoing restoration of the campus is bringing back to Wright’s original vision.

References

Historic American Building Survey (HABS) (original drawings)Mesick, Cohen, Wilson, Baker Architects, Florida Southern College Campus Heritage Plan, March 2008.In the Nature of Materials: The buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright (1887-1941), Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Da Capo Press, reprint 1975.
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