What) Frank Lloyd Wright was 67 years old when he went to Lakeland, Florida to plan the campus that would become Florida Southern College. Envisioning buildings rising "out of the ground, and into the light, a child of the sun," Frank Lloyd Wright created a master plan that would combine glass and steel with native Florida sand.

    Over the next twenty years, Wright visited the campus often to guide the ongoing construction. Florida Southern College now has the world's largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings on a single site. The buildings have not weathered well, and in 2007 the World Monuments Fund included the campus in its listing of endangered sites. Extensive restoration projects are now underway to save the buildings. (1)

    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 around the campus (2)

    Where) On Callahan Court - Guided tours are available from Mon-Fri at 11:00am and 1:00pm

    Why) For a long time, I believed that Frank Lloyd Wright was overated.  I based that opinion on the pictures I had seen of the exteriors of his buildings.  Then I had the great pleasure of visiting the Metropolitan Museum in New York where I stumbled upon the Frank Lloyd Wright Room (an exact recreation of a living room from a house he designed in 1914 called Northome).  This one interior space convinced me that Wright deserved all the praise he has received over the years.  Anyway, I decided to put a number of Wright designed buildings onto this list in the hopes of having another wonderful experience.