The Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center is a posthumous addition to Frank Lloyd Wright's Child of the Sun collection at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. [1] Wright oversaw the construction of twelve buildings on Florida Southern's campus between 1938 and 1958. He also designed a Usonian house in 1939 meant to be used for faculty housing. [2] Wright produced plans for 14 of the homes to be built on the college campus, but the plan was never carried through. [3] In 2013, the College completed construction of the design as the featured structure in the Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center. [1] [2] [4]
The 1,700 sq. ft. Usonian house features textile-block construction and colored glass inserts in perforated concrete blocks, [2] both signature elements of Wright’s building designs at Florida Southern, as well as furnishings designed by Wright. The two-bedroom house was similar in design to Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First House, the first of Wright’s Usonian houses. [5]
The Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center offers a variety of self-guided, docent-led, and group tours of the Wright campus. [6] The Center provides a home for the permanent display of photographs, furniture, and drawings depicting Wright’s relationship with the College. A documentary film about the Wright’s work at Florida Southern is also available for visitors to view while touring the Usonian house. The Center also acts as a home for visiting exhibits on loan from various other Wright sites.
The Child of the Sun collection is the largest single-site collection of Wright’s work in the world and a National Historic Landmark (2012). [6]
Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and mentoring hundreds of apprentices in his Taliesin Fellowship. Wright believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture".
Lakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. Located along I-4 east of Tampa and west of Orlando, it is the most populous city in Polk County. As of the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,641. Lakeland is a principal city of the Lakeland–Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lakeland is situated among several lakes including Lake Morton downtown and is sometimes locally referred to by the nickname "Swan City" due to its sizeable population of swans, all of whom are descendants of two mute swans given to Lakeland by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. Lakeland is home to several colleges and universities. Lakeland Linder International Airport is in Lakeland as is the corporate headquarters of Publix, a supermarket chain.
Usonia is a term that was used by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to the United States in general, and more specifically to his vision for the landscape of the country, including the planning of cities and the architecture of buildings. Wright proposed the use of the adjective Usonian to describe the particular New World character of the American landscape as distinct and free of previous architectural conventions.
Florida Southern College is a private university in Lakeland, Florida. In 2019, the student population at FSC consisted of 3,073 students along with 130 full-time faculty members. It offers undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate programs. The institution is home to the world's largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.
The Rosenbaum House is a single-family house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built for Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum in Florence, Alabama. A noted example of his Usonian house concept, it is the only Wright building in Alabama, and is one of only 26 pre-World War II Usonian houses. Wright scholar John Sergeant called it "the purest example of the Usonian."
John Warren Branscomb (1905-1959) was an American bishop of the Methodist Church, elected in 1952.
The Theodore Baird Residence, also known as Baird House, is a suburban house designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and located at 38 Shays Street in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the only Wright design in Massachusetts.
The Pope–Leighey House, formerly known as the Loren Pope Residence, is a suburban home in Virginia designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The house, which belongs to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has been relocated twice and sits on the grounds of Woodlawn Plantation, Alexandria, Virginia. Along with the Andrew B. Cooke House and the Luis Marden House, it is one of the three homes in Virginia designed by Wright.
The Weltzheimer/Johnson House is a Usonian style house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Oberlin, Ohio. It was constructed in 1948 and 1949. Now owned by Oberlin College, it is operated as part of the Allen Memorial Art Museum. The house was originally named the Charles Weltzheimer Residence.
The Hanna–Honeycomb House, also known as simply the Hanna House, located on the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California, United States, was Frank Lloyd Wright's first work in the Bay Area and his first work with non-rectangular structures. The house was chosen by the American Institute of Architects as one of seventeen buildings by the architect to be retained as an example of his contribution to American culture. It was recognized as a National Historic Landmark on June 29, 1989.
Child of the Sun is a collection of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright on the campus of the Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. The twelve original buildings were constructed between 1941 and 1958. Another of Wright's designs, a Usonian house originally intended for faculty housing, was completed in 2013, and is now part of the Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center. On March 2, 2012, it was designated a National Historic Landmark. The buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and together form the largest collection of buildings by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Gerald B. and Beverley Tonkens House is a single-story private residence in Amberley, Ohio, designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1954. The house was commissioned by Gerald B. Tonkens and his first wife Rosalie.
Isabel Roberts House is a 1908 Prairie Style house by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, located at 603 Edgewood Place in River Forest, Illinois It was built for Isabel Roberts and her widowed mother, Mary Roberts.
Frederick H. Trimble was an American architect in Central Florida from the early 1900s through the 1920s. He worked in the Colonial Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival and Prairie Style.
The Bachman–Wilson House, built in and originally located in Millstone, in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States, was originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1954 for Abraham Wilson and his first wife, Gloria Bachman. Ms. Bachman's brother, Marvin, had studied with Wright at Taliesin West, his home and studio in Scottsdale, Arizona. In 2014 the house was acquired by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas and has been relocated in its entirety to the museum's campus.
The Charles L. and Dorothy Manson home is a single-family house located at 1224 Highland Park Boulevard in Wausau, Wisconsin. Designated a National Historic Landmark, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 5, 2016, reference Number, 16000149.
The Gregor S. and Elizabeth B. Affleck House, also known as the Affleck House, is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Usonian home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in Metro Detroit. It is one of only about 25 pre-World War II Usonians to be built. It is owned by Lawrence Technological University. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 3, 1985.
Ludd Myrl Spivey was president of Florida Southern College (FSC) from 1925 to 1957. Ludd M. Spivey was born in Eclectic, Alabama. He graduated with two degrees, including a Ph.D., from the University of Chicago. Following his academic career at the University of Chicago, he became the academic dean at Birmingham Southern in the early 1920s. In the summer of 1925 he became president of Florida Southern College (FSC) in Lakeland, where he remained the president of the college for 32 years.
The Hause House project was one of the many un-built works designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939. This building structure was one of his Usonian designs that was a short-tailed rectangular plan to be located in Lansing, Michigan. Although the structure was never built, it was developed into working drawings and was utilized in the creation of another Frank Lloyd Wright design for the Florida Southern College Faculty House. The Hause House was a Usonian based on the design of wood board and batten exterior as many of them are, while the Florida Southern College Faculty House was a concrete structure. Many similarities are seen on each floor plan with only minor changes due to the Hause projects site location.
The Danforth Chapel Program was funded by the Danforth Foundation, an organization created in 1927 by William H. Danforth, founder of the Ralston Purina Company, and his wife. The Danforth Foundation focused on national education philanthropy: providing scholarships to college students, supporting projects to revitalize the city of St. Louis, and funding the Danforth Chapels. The Danforth Foundation closed in 2011 with a gift of $70M to the Donald Danforth Plant Center, a research center that focuses on solving world hunger.