Our tour of architectural sites in America started in Southwest Florida. The first stop was Florida Southern College, a site designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Lakeland, 30 miles east of Tampa. We also roamed Sarasota for the modern buildings termed Sarasota School of Architecture. Finally we made it up to Seaside and the new development Watercolor near Destin on the Panhandle, to see a community designed entirely by urban planners/architects.

Florida Southern College
Its brochure boasts the largest one-site collection of FLW architecture in the world. We got there after the visitor center was closed so we walked the campus. There are 12 buildings by FLW on the site, designs for six more buildings were never realized. The above photo is Annie Pfeiffer Chapel. Below is a photo of one of the paths called esplanades linking school buildings.

The esplanades were conceived for students to walk from class to class without getting wet in the frequent downpours of SW Florida. It interesting to note that the extensive esplanades (covered walkways) from building to building were in part constructed by students. Unfortunately the weather is probably contributing a great deal to the poor state of these landmark buildings.

More photos:
William Danforth Chapel View image
Copper Detailing on Sciences Building View image
Hallway ceiling about 6 feet high View image
Detail of concrete with embedded tesserae View image

Seaside

Seaside is a town designed by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk in the 1980's to 1990's. It was the setting where Jim Carey's character lived in the movie the Truman Show. It caused a sensation when it was made, somewhat like Celebration, the town Disney built. Arata Isozaki and Frank Gehry have buildings in Orlando's Disney World, incidentally, if you'd like to visit them.

We took a quick tour, putting down the convertible top and enjoying the late afternoon's cool breeze. This was the 4th of July weekend and it was hopping. The carefully considered sidewalks were punctuated by hip youngsters in Abercrombie and Fitch and the houses were all but hidden by the SUV's parked along the streets. There is another town being built the same way, all of a piece, called Watercolor, that basically continues the development Seaside began.

Seaside street scenes:
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