Child of the Sun

Florida Southern College Architectural District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Pfeiffer Chapel, 2009
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Location	Lakeland, Florida, United States
Coordinates	28°1′50″N 81°56′54″W / 28.03056°N 81.94833°W / 28.03056; -81.94833
Area	100 acres (0.40 km2)
Built	1941–1958
Architect	Frank Lloyd Wright
NRHP reference No.	75000568
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	11 June 1975[1]
Designated NHLD	2 March 2012[2]

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.

Frank Lloyd Wright was retained by Florida Southern President Ludd M. Spivey in 1938 to develop a master plan for the expansion and growth of the college's campus. Wright was given the opportunity to plan the campus using ideas about organic integration with the environment that the architect had been developing for some years. As basic design blocks for the campus, Wright adopted a plan based on the idea of orange groves, which have evenly spaced trees forming a grid. For construction, Wright used of textile blocks, which he had developed formally a decade before in his "Textile Block" houses in California. The buildings on the Florida Southern campus could be made of concrete blocks of standard size, whose use simplified design and construction of the buildings. Some of these blocks were formed by the college's students using local materials. The basic plan for the campus was based on ideas Wright had conceived as part of his Broadacre City idea of urban planning.^[3]

Opened in 2013, the Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center features a Wright-designed Usonian house and the GEICO Gift Shop. The center offers self-guided, docent-led, and group tours of this collection of the architect's work that Wright himself proclaimed to be among his best. It is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The buildings within the district include:

• 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

• 
  Buckner Building
• 
  Danforth Chapel
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  Danforth Chapel
• 
  Danforth Chapel
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  Danforth Chapel (original FLW designed pew)
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  Esplanade (walkway)
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  Esplanade (walkway)
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  Esplanade (walkway) night
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  Esplanade (walkway) pillar
• 
  Ordway Building
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  Ordway Building
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  Ordway Building (interior courtyard)
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  Ordway Building
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  Pfeiffer Chapel, 1941
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  Pfeiffer Chapel
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  Pfeiffer Chapel
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  Polk Science Building (only FLW designed planetarium)
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  Polk Science Building
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  Seminar Building
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  Water Dome (fountain on)
• 
  Water Dome pool

• List of Frank Lloyd Wright works
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Florida
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Polk County, Florida

• Media related to Child of the Sun at Wikimedia Commons
• Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. FL-323, "Florida Southern College, McDonald & Johnson Avenues, Lakeland, Polk County, FL", 53 photos, 22 data pages, 4 photo caption pages
• HABS No. FL-323-A, "Florida Southern College, Annie Pfeiffer Chapel", 11 photos, 5 color transparencies, 2 photo caption pages
• HABS No. FL-323-B, "Florida Southern College, William H. Danforth Chapel", 3 photos, 1 color transparency, 2 photo caption pages
• HABS No. FL-323-C, "Florida Southern College, Emile E. Watson Administration Building", 9 photos, 1 color transparency, 2 photo caption pages
• HABS No. FL-323-D, "Florida Southern College, E. T. Roux Library", 6 photos, 1 color transparency, 2 photo caption pages
• HABS No. FL-323-E, "Florida Southern College, Esplanade (Walkway)", 4 photos, 1 photo caption page
• HABS No. FL-323-F, "Florida Southern College, Polk Science Building", 10 photos, 1 photo caption page
• HABS No. FL-323-G, "Florida Southern College, Lucius Ordway Arts Building", 7 photos, 1 photo caption page
• HABS No. FL-323-H, "Florida Southern College, Auditorium-Music Building", 4 photos, 1 photo caption page
• Critique of the Child of the Sun
• Child of the Sun Visitor Center