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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAwarded Aug. 20, funding for the planetarium project is supported through a grant from the Save America\u2019s Treasures program. Overall, a total of $12.8 million in matching grants will fund 42 projects to preserve nationally historic properties and collections in 26 states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is phenomenal news, and Florida Southern greatly appreciates the funding to help preserve and restore this Frank Lloyd Wright global treasure,\u201d said FSC President Anne Kerr. \u201cCombined with significant philanthropy from a private donor, the future is bright for this magnificent one-of-its-kind planetarium. Scholars from around the world are eager to come and study this gem of world-class architecture at Florida Southern College.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Construction of the Polk Science Building was completed in 1958. It is the largest of the Wright-designed buildings on campus and the last to be completed within the architect\u2019s lifetime. In all, 13 of Wright\u2019s proposed structures were funded and built, giving Florida Southern the world\u2019s largest single-site collection of the architect\u2019s work and his only executed design for a college campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The planned two-year restoration project calls for repair, replacement, and physical upgrades to the planetarium facility\u2019s infrastructure and interior features, addressing damage caused by aging as well as water infiltration accelerated by several hurricanes. Together with a separately funded restoration of the building\u2019s exterior, the project\u2019s aim is to allow the resumption of educational programs for the benefit of FSC students and the Lakeland-area community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Restoration work will include repairing damage to the facility\u2019s unique \u201ctextile-block\u201d walls, a construction system that weaves together concrete blocks reinforced by steel bars. Damage to ceilings, windows, floors, doors, and other hardware will also be addressed, in addition to the off-site refurbishment of the planetarium\u2019s original, Wright-designed wooden seating and upholstery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Funding for the Save America\u2019s Treasures program was appropriated by Congress in 2019 from the Historic Preservation Fund to provide preservation assistance which does not come from tax dollars but instead uses revenue from federal oil leases. The program requires applicants to match grant money, dollar-for-dollar, from other funding sources \u2014 bringing FSC a total of $500,000 in funding for the planetarium\u2019s interior restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FSC\u2019s application for public funding to restore the planetarium\u2019s interior received endorsements and letters of support from the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, The Getty Foundation, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and Ross Spano, member of the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Florida Southern College Historic District was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Polk Science Building Planetarium \u2014 the world\u2019s only planetarium designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, on the campus of Florida Southern College \u2014 will receive a $250,000 restoration… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fsc-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8069","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}