
Esplanade detail of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed campus at Florida Southern College, in Lakeland. (Photos by C-M.)
One of the benefits of getting sent to Orlando on assignment is that it put me just an hour from Lakeland, the home of Florida Southern College, and the largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the world (built 1938-58). As with most Wright structures, the story of their construction is as interesting as the buildings themselves. In this case, the tiny, Methodist institution got Wright’s designs built by relying on unpaid college students working off their tuition. Some of the structures have recently undergone a renovation (such as the esplanades, pictured above). Further restoration is in the works. These buildings, if you’re anywhere in Central Florida (they’re only 45 minutes from Tampa; 90 minutes from Sarasota), are definitely worth a visit.
Click on photos to see them large. Money shots after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Photos: Frank Lloyd Wright at Florida Southern College.’

See the embroidery work of Steve MacDonald, aka the Ramblin’ Worker, at the Paper Boat in Milwaukee. Opens tomorrow. (Image courtesy of Ramblin’ Worker.)
- Absolutely Fabulous does artspeak. Included: a nice piece by Edward Winkleman, reflecting on the bear market.
- The Day in Corporate Douchebaggery: Louis Vuitton goes after artist over a Darfur-related print, which contains an image of a naked child holding a Murakami bag. “As an artist yourself, we hope that you recognize the need to respect other artists’ rights and Louis Vuitton’s Intellectual Property rights,” reads the cease-and-desist letter.
- Is the press rooting for an art market crash? Uh, maybe. (Thanks, Jason!)
- In a related story: Kenny Schachter on Art Cologne: “On opening day, the 42nd Art Cologne international art fair was so empty that an American could be forgiven for imagining tumbleweeds rolling down the aisles.”
- The coffin couch, the ideal piece of furniture for today’s art fair.
- Paris Bureau Chieftess Yvonne Connasse tells us that there is a Land of the Lost remake in the works…and Universal has just released early photos of the ‘08 version of the Sleestaks.
- She also reports that the Czechs predicted the existence of QVC, back in 1957.
- The Daily Show does a great take-down of the 60 Minutes interview with Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia.
- Carnegie International has a Flickr page. (Via MAN.)
- Courbet: Cindy Sherman before Cindy Sherman was Cindy Sherman.
- The artist list for OCMA’s California Biennial.
- Photos from the Olafur Eliasson show at MoMA.
- The Day in Name Changes: Harvard University Art Museums will now be known as Harvard Art Museum. I wonder how many academic committees it took to come to this radical decision.
- Howard Zinn, illustrated.
- R.I.P. Albert Hoffman, the father of LSD. More here.
- So totally odd. But I couldn’t help liking it.
- Felt weapons. (Via Murketing.)
- In NYC: Using transit cams to catch graffiti artists.
- Graff of the Day: Murocracia in Spain.
- I’m Banksy T-shirts.
- Amazing what you can do with an X-Acto knife: One of the best billboard jams I’ve seen yet.
- The floating graffiti pig at Coachella.
- New work by Boogie.
- Timelapse of cherry trees blossoming at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. (Via Kottke.)
- Johnson’s Glass House used to shill denim.
- Trippy cool building with rad stairs: BIP Computers by Alberto Mozó in Santiago, Chile.
- New Architecture Book: Verb Crisis, a tome that examines solutions to high urban density.
- Is the CIA photoshopping satellite imagery? (Via PDN.)
- Andy Warhol, thespian. Love the part where Liz Taylor decides she’s not his type.
- Your moment of snoozing bear cub, courtesy of Yvonne Connasse.
Posted by C-Monster.

Notice: Damien Hirst’s 15 minutes of fame have officially expired, in the streets of NYC. (Photo by shoehorn99.)
Posted by C-Monster.

Seeking Heaven Crew and friends in downtown L.A. (Photo courtesy of Seeking Heaven.)
Posted by C-Monster.

Naut, in L.A. (Photo by G@BR!3L.)
- “Researchers discover massive asshole in blogosphere.” (Via Kottke.)
- In keeping with the theme of artists shilling stuff: Timothy Buckwalter has a great round-up of ads with artists in them. The most sublime is a Braniff TV ad with Andy Warhol and Sonny Liston (who keeps gazing at the artist as if he were a space alien), with an earnest voiceover that says, “They like our food, they like our girls, they like our style.” Um, right.
- Keith Haring mural is recreated in the East Village.
- The Wackness: Cheese-ifying New York City.
- Olafur Eliasson in Der Spiegel: “Physical experience makes a much deeper impression than a purely intellectual encounter. I can explain to you what it’s like to feel cold, but I can also have you feel the cold yourself through my art. My goal is to sensitize people to highly complex questions.” (Via AJ.)
- Arshile Gorky and the Armenian genocide.
- A lesson to studio artists everywhere: Shred your garbage.
- Pace Wildenstein goin’ to China.
- Whitney Biennial review of the Day: “The problem, I think, is that the two organisers, Shamim Momin and Henriette Huldisch, are the kind of curators who like art but don’t like looking at things.”
- Vintage Latin American Music of the Day: El manisero.
- Austrian Supreme Court rejects Bloch-Bauer heirs appeal for a sixth Klimt, possibly reflecting a hardening of Austria’s restitution policy.
- Looted artifacts returned to Iraq’s National Museum.
- Some background on the El Greco to Velázquez show at Boston’s MFA.
- Sluggish sales at Art Chicago.
- Larry Salander is the gift that keeps on giving. In today’s episode of As Salander Turns: Larry offers the world his opinion on Damien Hirst’s shark at The Met: “It’s much better than I thought it would be, and it still stinks…I don’t understand where it’s art.”
- In related news: old master paintings don’t do so hot at Christie’s auction. (Via AO.)
- Plus: what happens to all those unsold works at auctions? (Via AO.)
- Paintings of Ophelia.
- Unbuilt Calatrava tower looks a whole lot like unbuilt Howe & Lescaze design for MoMA in 1930, reports Martin Filler. (And they both kinda look like the very built New Museum.)
- U.S. Mayors may be the ones to lead the charge in greening cities. Cuz it certainly ain’t gonna be the federal gummint. (Via architecture.mnp.)
- In a related story: a design for a super green home in Oregon.
- New Book: Construction Site: Metamorphoses in the City, edited by Marie Antoinette Glaser.
- A Flickr set on a shipping container house in Wellington, New Zealand. (Via Moco Loco.)
- The Dark Lord Foster abandons the U.K. for Switzerland.
- A brand spankin’ new L.A. billboard by Augor, Taste Like Gold and Bonks of the Seventh Letter MSK Crew. Plus: Ron English redoes a McCain billboard.
- Graff of the Day: Fat Head in Riverside, Calif.
- Ben Eine in Swindle.
- I want, I need, I have to have…the Elvis bath robe.
- You moment of codpieces, ‘80s-style.
Posted by C-Monster.
After reading an interview in which Murakami discussed the influence that Star Wars (and other sci fi) has had on his work, I thought a visual pairing might be of interest:

Tan Tan Bo, 2001 by Takashi Murakami.

A TIE fighter gets it from the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars.
Plus: A time lapse video of Murakami sculptures going up at the Brooklyn Museum. (This link will only be available for the duration of the show…because lord knows what could happen if people could access this sort of information once the pieces come down.)
Posted by C-Monster.