Esplanade
1946
In 1946, Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings were connected by the Esplanade, a series of covered walkways. Atop foundation pieces inscribed with the name of someone significant to Florida Southern College are uniform columns. The edges of the roofs were painted green, and the columns were evenly spaced apart; both elements were designed to reflect the citrus trees that used to cover the campus. The Esplanade runs more than a mile in length with ceilings no more than 7 feet in height because Frank Lloyd Wright designed the walkways based on his own scale, or 5 feet 8.5 inches tall. The Esplanade keeps students out of the sun and rain and runs between all of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings: the original Roux Library, the Watson-Fine Administration Buildings, the Raulerson Seminar Buildings, the Lucius Pond Ordway Building, the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, and the Polk County Science Building. In 2007, the Esplanade Quad Garden, located near the Polk County Science Building, was dedicated to Florida Southern's landscaping staff in "deepest appreciation for making the campus the most beautiful in the nation."
Esplanade Quad Garden