Frank Lloyd Wright & The College of Tomorrow, which opens at The Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College on Saturday, held a preview reception Thursday evening of an exhibition that aims to change the course of American architecture, in the words of one of its organizers.
The show is the product of an eight-year collaboration between MCWB Architects of Albany, New York and Florida Southern College. It examines Wright’s plans and designs for one of his most complex projects, the Florida Southern College campus.
In addition to the drawings and plans for FSC, many of them never before publicly displayed, the exhibition features a 3-D printed scale model of the complete FSC campus as envisioned by Wright with both completed and unbuilt structures.
MCWB fabricated this and several other models for the show.
Jeff Baker, an architect and partner at MCWB who is leading efforts to preserve and restore Wright’s work at FSC, said, “Our future architects still have a lot to learn about what was built here at Florida Southern College.”
New Discovery: In the course of preparing the exhibit, Baker and Alex Rich, the executive director and chief curator at The AGB, stumbled upon plans for a building designed for FSC but unknown to Wright scholars.
It’s not included in the site plan, so they couldn’t determine where this medical building would have been constructed on campus, but the discovery “means the door is still open for more Frank Lloyd Wright research,” said Baker.
The exhibit also includes original architectural drawings of other famous buildings from Wright’s career, including the Guggenheim Museum, in New York City, on loan from Art Bridges. They contain “little pieces and parts that contribute to the Florida Southern College story,” Baker explained.
An Invitation: Wright’s accomplishment at FSC resulted from a partnership with Ludd Spivey, the president of FSC from 1925-1957.
Spivey’s 1938 telegrammed request that Wright design a campus of the future — a “Great Temple of Education” — was the first of its kind received by the architect, who was best known for designing homes.
Wright visited Florida for the first time in May of 1938, when he was nearing 71. He toured FSC’s recently purchased Lakeland campus, a defunct citrus grove overlooking Lake Hollingsworth.
After three days on the site, Wright began to draft the plan for the college that would become his longest-lasting commission, 20 years.
Decimated by the Great Depression, FSC had yet to secure funds for building when Spivey reached out to Wright. He innovated by offering students at the college enrolled in related programs like carpentry the opportunity for hands-on learning as part of the construction team.
More specialized work was completed by local craftspeople.
Although his designs are revered today as historic sites or integrated into museum collections, Wright endeavored to create for the masses. As a living, breathing college campus with around 3,000 students each year, FSC embodies Wright’s vision for functional design in harmony with nature.
Baker hopes “Frank Lloyd Wright & The College of Tomorrow” will raise awareness of FSC among architects around the world. He sees the exhibit and the FSC School of Architecture as the beginning of something much larger: He envisions Lakeland as an architectural center of the world.
If you go:
- What: “Frank Lloyd Wright & The College of Tomorrow”
- Where: The Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College, 800 E. Palmetto St.; Dorothy Jenkins & Harper Family Galleries
- When: Sat., June 7-Sun., Nov. 16
- Hours: Tues., Wed., Fri., Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Thurs. 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun., 1-5 p.m. Closed Sundays, June through Labor Day
- Admission: Free
