Frank Lloyd Wright, one of America’s most famous and prolific architects, designed over 1,000 architectural works during his career. More than 500 were built, including countless houses, several churches, a few theaters and one planetarium. That single planetarium opened its doors in 1960 in the Polk County Science Building on the campus of Florida Southern College, a hotspot of Wright architecture.
When its projector died in 2004, the planetarium fell into dormancy for over two decades. But now, after a nearly six-year renovation and technological overhaul, it is once again open to the public, per a statement from the school. The private college in Lakeland, Florida, is a trove of Wright’s architecture.
Wright first visited Florida Southern College in 1936, during a career high—construction was wrapping up at Fallingwater and beginning at Taliesin West. He accepted a commission to redesign the college’s campus, which he envisioned as a “Child of the Sun,” composed of sand-colored concrete and stained glass. Between 1938 and 1958, the architect contributed 12 buildings to the campus (a 13th was completed after his death), making it the largest single-site collection of Wright’s architecture in the world.
Since 2007, Florida Southern has been restoring its run-down Wright buildings. It’s like a little green shoot growing in a concrete pavement.” The Polk County Science Building was among the last of Wright’s campus designs to be realized. The planetarium—originally conceived as an observatory but scrapped on account of the Florida sun—was built between 1954 and 1958 and held its first show in 1960.
Students were taught to understand and appreciate the value of our connection to the earth while simultaneously looking for inspiration toward the stars.” The restoration team worked from the outside in, installing a new roof, sealing out water and replacing more than 280 custom-made tiles that decorate the building’s edges. They then took on the task of restoring the interior of the 60-seat theater. The workers repainted the walls, refurbished the dark red floor and removed a computer closet once added to the room.
The renovation team also replaced all the planetarium’s audio-visual equipment, which formerly ran eight-track tapes, FOX 13’s Carla Bayron reports. The theatre will now regularly screen immersive public shows like “Cosmic Adventure” and “Destination Mars: The New Frontier.” Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs appear on several other campuses, including Wichita State’s Corbin Education Center and the Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium at Arizona State University. The college planetarium wasn’t Wright’s first attempt at designing for astronomy.
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