PHEIFFER CHAPEL

Lakeland, FL

While in Orlando for a competition, I decided to visit this college campus about 35-miles south on I-4. I was aware that Frank Lloyd Wright had designed a number of buildings there, but was unaware there were 18 distinctive Wright designs. In the late 1930’s, college president Dr. Ludd Spivey determined to find an architect for the campus who’s work was uniquely American.

Wright’s work can clearly be defined as independent of historical influence - no Ionic columns or Palladian arches to be found. What I did find in Wright designs at the campus was an exquisite sense of detail. It seemed that nothing in the work was left without his refined touch. For example, the 100’s of tilted columns supporting the covered walks (seen in the foreground) around the campus were themselves works of art. Even the blocks of the walls of the buildings were detailed with notched corners, making this mundane building element something extraordinary. I did notice that when Wright found a design motif he liked, he was not afraid to repeat it – over and over. An example of this was his detailing of façade square and triangular panels seen in this sketch, with diminishing inscribed smaller square and triangular panels. I also took noticed his use of symmetrical building forms – a feature familiar to the classics.