FSC gets $250,000 to restore Wright planetarium
Federal grant intended for repairs to planetarium
Gary White
LAKELAND — Florida Southern College will receive $250,000 for the restoration of the Polk County Science Building's planetarium through a program administered by the National Park Service.
The Lakeland college is one of two Florida recipients of Save America’s Treasures grants announced Thursday. The Trump administration listed projects that will receive a total of $12.8 million.
"This is phenomenal news, and Florida Southern greatly appreciates the funding to help preserve and restore this Frank Lloyd Wright global treasure," FSC President Anne Kerr said. "Combined 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.”
Congress appropriated funding for the program in 2019 from the Historic Preservation Fund, which uses revenue from federal oil leases to provide preservation assistance, the NPS said in a news release. The program requires applicants to leverage project funds from other sources to match the grant money.
The awarding of $12.8 million will yield more than $25.9 million in private and public investment, the NPS reported.
The Science Building, designed by revered architect Frank Lloyd Wright, was completed in 1958, the last of a dozen Wright structures built on campus. It contains the only planetarium designed by Wright to be constructed, according to William Allin Storrer’s book, “The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.”
The building contains offices for professors in science and related subjects, laboratories for science classes, lecture rooms and several computer labs, as well as storage areas, according to a description on the Florida Southern website.
The first showing at the planetarium took place on April 7, 1960. The building was renovated in the early 2000s and now uses Spitz 1024 Planetarium Instruments, maintained by the college’s Astronomy Club, the description said.
The round dome of the planetarium can be seen on the south end of campus, near Lake Hollingsworth.
The other Florida grant recipient is Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Trust in Miami, which received $500,000 for preservation of the historic superintendent’s house.
Grants also were awarded for the restoration of the Space Shuttle Pathfinder Orbiter simulator at the Alabama Space Science Exhibit in Huntsville, Alabama, and Preserving the Mystic Seaport Museum curatorial files in Mystic, Connecticut.
The Save America’s Treasures program was established in 1998, and is carried out in a partnership among the NPS and other federal agencies, the release said.
The program provided $323 million to more than 1,200 projects from 1999 to 2018.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.