Project

Located on a hillside overlooking Lake Hollingsworth, Florida Southern College contains the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the world. The master plan for the institution, described by Wright as "the first uniquely American campus," was created in 1938.

Located on a hillside overlooking Lake Hollingsworth, Florida Southern College contains the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the world. The master plan for the institution, described by Wright as "the first uniquely American campus," was created in 1938.

The first and most significant of the buildings, the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel, was constructed between 1939 and 1941. Over the next two decades, nine more buildings, a “water dome” fountain, and nearly 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) of esplanades were constructed.

The textile blocks that make up the buildings of Florida Southern’s campus are failing, due in part to water infiltration, which has corroded the iron bars that hold them together. The deterioration has been exacerbated by deferred maintenance and inappropriate repairs. In addition to the technical challenges of conserving the textile blocks, the difficulty in sympathetically adapting the Wright-designed buildings for modern use presents an obstacle to the conservation program.