Nature

The oblique angles of the roaming esplanades create dynamic open spaces where nature and man can, together, thrive.

Annie Pfeiffer Chapel

"Out of the ground, and into the light." - FLlW

Florida Southern Campus Map

Notice the angled esplanades connecting each of the buildings creating dynamic open space.

More of Frank Lloyd Wright's Florida Southern College

The Esplanade

Organic Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright in Florida

Green Design at Florida Southern College

In 1938, Ludd Spivey - president of Florida Southern College - sent Frank Lloyd Wright a telegram that read:

DESIRE CONFERENCE CONCERNING PLANS FOR GREAT EDUCATION TEMPLE IN FLORIDA. STOP. WIRE COLLECT WHEN AND WHERE I CAN SEE YOU.

A campus with buildings exalting the very idea of learning - imagine that!

Frank Lloyd Wright - America's first green Architect - did. Over the next few months, he created a complete master plan of 18 new buildings for the 60-acre, orange-groved campus. Over the next decade and a half, 13 structures were completed including a system of covered esplanades connecting all of the buildings, providing shelter from the rain and shade in the hot Florida summers.

Mr. Wright, with encouragement from the enterprising Spivey, devised a method of construction by which students, in lieu of tuition, participated in the construction of new buildings and esplanades.

I took this series of photographs a couple of weeks ago.

Green Campus Movement

Did you know that many US college presidents are working in a concerted effort to green our nations campuses?

Signatories of the American College and University President's Climate Commitment agree to institute proactive measures to cut campus emissions and waste. The document specifies several areas of action including a commitment to design new buildings to meet or exceed the US Green Building Council's LEED silver designation.

FYI: LEED has four levels of certification - certified, silver, gold, and platinum. The lowest level, Certified, indicates that some measures have been taken to minimize the building's carbon footprint. A Platinum designation is meted out for an A++ in sustainability; not many currently exist. Silver and Gold are somewhere in between.

President Martha Dunagin Saunders of the University of Southern Mississippi (where I am teaching a sustainability seminar this spring) signed the document when she was chancelor of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and then again as president of USM.

To view the commitment - it's only two pages, go for it - click here:

http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/commitment.pdf

And check to see if the leader of your institution of higher learning is a signatory.

http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/signatories.php

HUD Flashback

Sometime around late 1989 or early 1990, I went with my friend Doug Michels - distinguished Architect and Futurist - to talk with one of the higher-ups at the Department of Housing and Urban Development about the future of American housing. I had arranged this meeting through my Senator with the highest ranking career guy in the department who supposedly was right under Secretary Jack Kemp in the chain of command. Kemp wasn't taking meetings about 'those kinds of issues' - at least that was the word from the Senator's staff.

Doug was one of the founders of the experimental design group Ant Farm based in San Francisco; they produced art and architecture projects throughout the US. You may be familiar with their most famous work, Cadillac Ranch - American roadside art near Amarillo, Texas celebrating the evolution of the tail fin.

We didn't really know what to expect or what would come out of the discussion, but we were interested in what HUD was doing because we had heard Kemp was there to shake things up.

As a young architect, I was very eager to be prepared, and asked Doug how much time we would need before the meeting to go over our agenda. He said "Polk, we prepare every day of our lives."

So we, or at least I, went in blindly.

When we got there, we were ushered through light security (this was well before 911) to a nondescript government office space, and very shortly, our man - a somewhat portly and very friendly guy - walked in.

"What can I do for you?"

After a few niceties, we asked "What is HUD doing to address the future of housing in this country?"

The guy seemed a bit perplexed. He said "Well, there were a few people looking into that in the late 70's, but Reagan got rid of all of them."

Then, with a sudden gleam in his eye, he perked up. Leaning forward, as if to let us in on the secret of the universe, he smiled and said "Lead Paint! We've got a big push on now for lead paint abatement." He was very self-congratulatory.

Doug and I were speechless. We both just grinned and looked back and forth at each other and the HUD guy while he went on about all they were doing in the area of lead paint abatement. We were trying not to crack up.

Very quickly, we excused ourselves. There was nothing left to talk about. We barely made it out of the building before we were howling with laughter.

Forever more, "Lead Paint Abatement" was our running punch line for any joke.

But the real joke was that HUD has for the past 3 decades (with the exception of some activity during the Clinton Administration, albeit woefully underfunded) been out of the business of shaping the future of America's housing.

Seems preposterous, doesn't it.

Well, I think the situation shifted 180 degrees on November 4th. And from all I know about Shaun Donovan, and admittedly that's not much, HUD will be taking a more proactive approach, giving direction and thought to the matter of housing design and building in America. Obama has demonstrated that he understands why planning for what we want to see manifested, rather than leaving it to chance and businessmen, is a fundamentally higher level of thinking - responsive to the human condition, not simply to the bottom line of a vinyl siding-slapping profiteer.

I may even see if I can schedule another meeting. Doug, now no longer with us, will be watching from the ether whispering "Lead Paint, Lead Paint, Lead Paint," and laughing hysterically.

This is exciting.