{"id":55761,"date":"2025-05-16T20:07:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T00:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=55761"},"modified":"2025-05-16T20:08:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T00:08:37","slug":"florida-southern-fights-to-preserve-historic-frank-lloyd-wright-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/05\/16\/florida-southern-fights-to-preserve-historic-frank-lloyd-wright-structure\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Southern fights to preserve historic Frank Lloyd Wright structure"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThis is an example of probably the best block work in his career,\u201d resident Architect Jeffery Baker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baker says the chapel, built in 1941, is a testament to Wright\u2019s ability to design extraordinary structures that can withstand Florida\u2019s weather. But over time, he says, parts of the building have become difficult to maintain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the reasons is because he designed architecture\u2026 was very avant-garde. It was something that was completely different and he was constantly testing the limits of materials,\u201d Baker said. \u201cAs a result, the quality control wasn\u2019t fantastic and so therefore some of these buildings are difficult to keep water out of at least at the ground level, especially through those textile blocks that you\u2019re seeing behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After Hurricanes Milton and Debby last year, water from surrounding areas flooded toward the chapel, damaging the floors. Heavy rain also caused parts of the ceiling to chip away. Terry Dennis, vice president of finance and administration, says the school spent well over six figures in repairs. While crews worked inside, staff had to find other locations to host scheduled events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there was a very large event that was scheduled for here, we probably moved it out because the balcony is where we had the most challenge to cosmetically go in and repair the things that might\u2019ve been plastered, beginning to drip, etc.,\u201d Dennis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, Baker says they\u2019ve been able to restore most of the chapel using modern materials, but there\u2019s still more work to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s left to be down here would be the skylight. A little bit of steel repair needs to happen up there too. Not structural steel, but more decorative steel around the skylight up above,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As long as the repairs are done properly, Baker is confident the building will withstand this upcoming hurricane season\u2014and many more to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, Florida Southern filed a lawsuit against Tremco Construction Products Group for its role in installing the chapel\u2019s roof system back in 2011. The complaint claims Tremco supplied the roofing materials and oversaw the installation, which later led to water leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

School officials declined to comment on the lawsuit. In a statement, Beaman & Brown PLLC, the firm representing Tremco CPG, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTremco provided materials for the roof at Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, which were installed by a roofing contractor. Tremco issued a long-term warranty to the University, and Tremco intends to stand behind that warranty, as it always does. Consistent with that, when we became aware of this lawsuit, we reached out to the University\u2019s counsel and expressed Tremco\u2019s desire to work with the University to come up with a solution for any water intrusion issues at the Chapel, some or all of which may not relate to the roof. To develop that solution, Tremco plans to conduct a thorough inspection of the Chapel in the next month. We certainly understand the cultural significance of the Chapel and hope to partner with the University to repair and\/or improve the Chapel\u2019s exterior (consistent with the terms of our warranty).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As long as the repairs are done properly, Baker is confident the building will withstand this upcoming hurricane season\u2014and many more to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, Florida Southern filed a lawsuit against Tremco Construction Products Group for its role in installing the chapel\u2019s roof system back in 2011. The complaint claims Tremco supplied the roofing materials and oversaw the installation, which later led to water leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

School officials declined to comment on the lawsuit. In a statement, Beaman & Brown PLLC, the firm representing Tremco CPG, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTremco provided materials for the roof at Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, which were installed by a roofing contractor. Tremco issued a long-term warranty to the University, and Tremco intends to stand behind that warranty, as it always does. Consistent with that, when we became aware of this lawsuit, we reached out to the University\u2019s counsel and expressed Tremco\u2019s desire to work with the University to come up with a solution for any water intrusion issues at the Chapel, some or all of which may not relate to the roof. To develop that solution, Tremco plans to conduct a thorough inspection of the Chapel in the next month. We certainly understand the cultural significance of the Chapel and hope to partner with the University to repair and\/or improve the Chapel\u2019s exterior (consistent with the terms of our warranty).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is an example of probably the best block work in his career,\u201d resident Architect Jeffery Baker said. Baker says the chapel, built in 1941, is a testament to Wright\u2019s… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDVcL0lNR180NDU5XzFfY3JvcC53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNTc2JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiRmxvcmlkYSBTb3V0aGVybiBmaWdodHMgdG8gcHJlc2VydmUgaGlzdG9yaWMgRnJhbmsgTGxveWQgV3JpZ2h0IHN0cnVjdHVyZSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.JxexJDRjk0lWaGjGtIqRFX9nrB6I9zhTe04MK1gdwx4MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":55762,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4459_1_crop.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[34],"tags":[11514],"class_list":["post-55761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fsc-news","tag-florida-southern-fights-to-preserve-historic-frank-lloyd-wright-structure"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55764,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55761\/revisions\/55764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}