#620 The Newest Usonian

Frank Lloyd Wright died 54 years ago, yet his work is still being built.

Florida Southern College is the site of the most Wright structures ever built for a single client.  For several years, the college has been working on a new Usonian house according to Wright's original plan.  So when it opened in 2013 of course we visited.

Wright designed this Usonian home as faculty housing in 1939, but the plan went unbuilt. The house has three bedrooms and one bath and is constructed of almost 2000 hand-made textile blocks with thousands more gleaming colored-glass inserts. 

This new structure adjoins the main campus where Wright connected his buildings with covered walkways to protect students from the elements while mimicking the regular spacing of the citrus trees covering the original site.

The Wright buildings are all still in use putting it at the top of Forbes' list of most beautiful college campuses...

  

  

  ...and proudly displayed in the school's promotional materials.

The campus boasts Wright's only theater in the round...

 ...and Wright's only planetarium...

 ...and Wright's only water dome. 

Of course our favorite building was Wright's circular library.

Kudos to Florida Southern College for their stewardship and promotion of architectural wonders. 

Yours in Wright appreciation,
Kelly

#93 Back home again

Our voyage has come to an end – we’re sad, but happy to be home. In the week that we’ve been back in the US, here are some of the things that we particularly appreciate.

In the US

• Rest areas with ‘western’ toilets, running water, AND toilet paper
• Cars that drive in their own traffic lanes
• The low, low price of gas (now selling for about $8/gallon in Europe)
• Drinkable tap water and all the environmental policies in place that make it so

In Florida (where we hung out while waiting for Indiana to warm up)

• Warm southern states that allow us to postpone our entry to winter
• Key Lime Pie in Key West
• The homogeneity of the US that allowed Sonic Drive-Ins to make it all the way to Florida
• The ideas that Frank Lloyd Wright took (uncredited) from all over the world that allowed him to create the chapel at Florida Southern College
• The connections between Kansas City and Key West – home to both Truman and Hemingway

In Indiana

• The feeling that we get when turning on our street
• Dropping off the rental car and walking home
• Neighbors who are eager to greet us 
• Friends who have taken care of our home, stacked up all the mail, and brought dinner on our first day back

Yours in Indiana,
Mary

#91 What’s Normal Anyway?

After 10 days crossing the Atlantic, we arrived Thursday in Florida.

Banner-waving students lined the ship’s rails and banner-waving families and friends lined the dock.

A few hours later, we walked down the gangway for the last time, left the MV Explorer gleaming in the Florida sun, and plunged back into “normal” society. Earlier this week our thoughtful friend Donna wrote:

I've been thinking about you as you journey back home and wonder how you are going to feel. You've taken on a new "normal" these past months and I can't help but think (from my own experience) that life here will seem eerily abnormal for a while.

So in our current state of heightened awareness, we’ve decided to hit the road for a few days to postpone our winter entry while keeping a keen eye out for abnormal behavior. We’re thinking Key West…

Yours in pursuing normalcy,
Mary