Frank Lloyd Wright & the College of Tomorrow

This large-scale Smithsonian Affiliate museum exhibition offers a comprehensive and previously unseen look at architect Frank Lloyd Wright's 20-year effort to design a visionary campus in Lakeland, Fla. Featuring original renderings, architectural plans, correspondence, furnishings, and archival materials — including loans from the Art Bridges Foundation and Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University — the show also includes a centerpiece 3-D printed scale model, designed and fabricated by the team at MCWB, showcasing Wright's full campus plan, with both completed and unbuilt structures, taking visitors behind the scenes and into the archives. 

The exhibition occupies three of the Museum's main galleries — the Dorothy Jenkins Gallery, the Harper Family Gallery, and the Perkins Gallery — and marks the most expansive original exhibition in the institution's history. It was conceptualized and developed over the course of eight years by Museum staff and project architects from MCWB. 

In addition to exploring Wright's broader artistic vision, the exhibition also delves into the evolution of his "textile block" system — the innovative method used to construct the buildings at Florida Southern College. Large wall panels illustrate how this system developed over time, offering insight into Wright's design thinking and aesthetic sensibilities.

The Museum invites visitors to explore the exhibition in tandem with the surrounding Florida Southern College campus, steps away from The AGB, which features the largest single-site collection of Wright buildings in the world. Daily guided tours of the campus are available through the Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center. 

"Frank Lloyd Wright & the College of Tomorrow" has been organized and made possible by the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art, Joel & Kelly Adams and Family, MCWB Architects, Art Bridges Foundation, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University and The Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay, Jr. Archives Center at Florida Southern College.