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Sun and Shadow: Frank Lloyd Wright's "Child of the Sun".

At Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida is located the largest collection of buildings on one site ever created by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of America's foremost architects. Wright's plan for the campus is the only tangible example of his community planning ideas, termed "Organic Architecture." His concept was to decentralize the city by distributing urban functions to rural areas and to utilize new technologies in the building trades. Wright insisted that the college's individual buildings reflect their environment through the use of "native materials all universally adapted to the uses of young life." Eighteen buildings, only seven of which were completed, were originally planned for the campus.

Wright referred to the project as his “Child of the Sun” and it was built on the campus of a small Methodist college nestled amidst the orange groves on the bluff overlooking Lake Hollingsworth in the city of Lakeland. Wright’s goal was to create a “great education temple in Florida” utilizing a "real Florida form” designed to “…help the indoors to go outdoors and the outdoors to come inside."

Intense sun and hard rain are ubiquitous to Florida and Wright designed his buildings and the campus with these in mind—one and one-half miles of covered walkways connect his buildings and many over the structures have overhangs to block the sun and create shaded areas.

Wright began work on a campus master plan shortly after his 1938 visit. He envisioned the "construction of an integrated complex of eighteen separate buildings...a circular pool or waterdome...and a network of 'esplanades' or covered walkways connecting the independent components of the plan."

The foundation for the first building, the chapel, was laid by November 1938. Construction lagged, however, due to shortages of money and skilled labor, and it wasn't until March 1941 that the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel was formally dedicated. It was the first Wright designed building to be completed on the Florida Southern campus. It was followed later the same year by the Carter, Wallbridge, and Hawkins Buildings, known collectively as the Seminars. These were a series of one story combination office and classroom buildings connected by interior courtyards.

President Spivey had hoped that the completion of the first Wright designed buildings would spur fundraising efforts and permit the rapid completion of Wright's master plan for the campus. Those hopes were dashed, however, by the U. S. entry into World War II. Construction slowed dramatically after completion of the Seminars. Although the foundation for what was to become the first Roux Library was laid in the spring of 1942, war induced shortages of labor and materials delayed its completion and dedication until 1946.

The Roux Library (now the Buckner Building) was followed over the next several years by the Administration (Watson-Fine) Building in 1949, the Industrial Arts (Ordway) Building in 1952, and the Danforth Chapel in 1955. A Wright designed waterdome was also completed in 1948 and the esplanades were extended as more buildings were completed. The final Wright designed building constructed on the campus was the Polk County Science Building, dedicated in 1958.

Several other structures included in Wright's master plan for the campus were never built. Among them were an amphitheater, a music building, and a fine arts building. Wright devised plans for each of these structures, but they were never realized due in part to tight budgets and in part to the retirement of Florida Southern President Ludd Spivey in 1957. Spivey had been the driving force behind the Wright designed campus and, with his retirement and Wright's death in 1959, the college administration began to move away from Wright' s master plan.

The campus is a must see if you are in the area. Orlando is approximately 40 miles to the East.