Frank Lloyd Wright was retained by Florida Southern President Ludd M. Spivey in 1938 to develop a master plan for the expansion and growth of the college's campus. Wright was given the opportunity to plan the campus using ideas about organic integration with the environment that the architect had been developing for some years. As basic design blocks for the campus, Wright adopted a plan based on the idea of orange groves, which have evenly spaced trees forming a grid. For construction, Wright used of textile blocks, which he had developed formally a decade before in his "Textile Block" houses in California. The buildings on the Florida Southern campus could be made of concrete blocks of standard size, whose use simplified design and construction of the buildings. Some of these blocks were formed by the college's students using local materials. The basic plan for the campus was based on ideas Wright had conceived as part of his Broadacre City idea of urban planning.[3]
Opened in 2013, the Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center features a Wright-designed Usonian house and the GEICO Gift Shop. The center offers self-guided, docent-led, and group tours of this collection of the architect's work that Wright himself proclaimed to be among his best. It is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Buildings
The buildings within the district include:
Annie Pfeiffer Chapel – first completed Frank Lloyd Wright structure on the campus, dedicated 1941
Seminars (now the Financial Aid and Business Office) – completed 1941
Buckner Building (original Roux Library) – completed 1946
Watson/Fine Building (Administration Building) – completed 1949
Water Dome – partially completed 1949, completed and restored in 2007 to Wright's original plans
Danforth Chapel – completed 1955
Ordway Building (originally called the Industrial Arts Building) – completed 1952
Polk County Science Building (called Polk Science by faculty and students) – completed 1958
The Esplanades – various completion times, currently undergoing restoration
Gallery
Buckner Building
Danforth Chapel
Danforth Chapel
Danforth Chapel
Danforth Chapel (original FLW designed pew)
Esplanade (walkway)
Esplanade (walkway)
Esplanade (walkway) night
Esplanade (walkway) pillar
Ordway Building
Ordway Building
Ordway Building (interior courtyard)
Ordway Building
Pfeiffer Chapel, 1941
Pfeiffer Chapel
Pfeiffer Chapel
Polk Science Building (only FLW designed planetarium)