The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Emile E. Watson Administration Building

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Emile E. Watson Administration Building, Florida Southern College

Institution Name: Florida Southern College
Original/Historic Place Name: Emile Watson Administration Building
Location on Campus: West Campus - Johnson Ave.
Date(s) of Construction:

1948	original construction Wright, Frank Lloyd

Designer: Frank Lloyd Wright
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Modern/post-WWII (Glossary)
Significance: architecture, landscape
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: concrete

Walls: concrete textile block

Roof: built-up

Function:

ca. 1948-present (2006)

administration

Narrative:
The Emile Watson Administration Building is composed of square and rectangular shapes of concrete block and stucco accented at certain points by double cantilevered columns. The main building is built around a sunken garden and connected to a smaller structure used as a lobby. The interior receives ample natural lighting from numerous skylights and narrow vertical windows. A 1200 square foot addition was made to the northeast and an upstairs area was converted into office space (from National register report).

References:

Florida Southern College. Historic American Buildings Survey report and photos. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, [n.d.].

Florida Southern College: The First Hundred Years. Lakeland, FL: Florida Southern College, 1985.

Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly 12, no. 3 (2001).

Little, J. Rodney, and Phillip A. Werndli. Florida Southern College Architectural District. National Register of Historic Places designation report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1975.

Smalling, Walter, Jr. Emile E. Watson Administration Building [Florida Southern College]. Historic American Buildings Survey photographs. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1979.

Turner, Paul Venable. Campus: An American Planning Tradition. New York: Architectural History Foundation; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984.