Frank Lloyd Wright’s only completed planetarium has reopened at Florida Southern College following nearly six years of restoration and technological upgrades. Situated within the Polk County Science Building in Lakeland, Florida, the 60-seat theatre had been dormant for more than two decades after its projector failed in 2004.
Built between 1954 and 1958, the planetarium presented its first show in 1960. Wright had initially conceived an observatory, but that proposal was abandoned because of the Florida sun. An earlier planetarium he designed for a Maryland complex in the 1920s was never built.
Working from the exterior inwards, the restoration team installed a roof, sealed the building against water and replaced more than 280 custom-made decorative tiles. Inside, workers repainted the walls and refurbished the dark red floor. Removing a computer closet enabled them to reinstate the original circular seating arrangement, which restoration architect Jeff Baker described as a rare survival among American planetariums.
The audiovisual systems have also been replaced, superseding equipment that once used eight-track tapes. Regular public screenings will include “Cosmic Adventure” and “Destination Mars: The New Frontier”, bringing immersive space programmes back to the restored theatre.
The project forms part of a wider effort to preserve the college’s Wright architecture, under way since 2007. Wright first visited the campus in 1936 and contributed 12 buildings between 1938 and 1958; a thirteenth was completed after his death. Together, they constitute the world’s largest single-site collection of his architectural work.
