Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: At Florida Southern College 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's involvement at the campus was the result of urgings from Ludd M. Spivey, then president of the college. 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. The Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, begun in 1938, was the first to be built, and the Polk Science Building, completed in 1959 during the presidency of Charles T. Thrift, Jr., was the last. Later buildings on the campus were designed by Nils Schweizer, an eminent Florida architect and student of Wright. The Florida Southern College Architectural district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.