Polk County Science Building
1958
The Polk County Science Building, one of the last of Frank Lloyd Wright's original buildings, finished construction in 1958. Named for Polk County after the local community greatly contributed to its construction fundraiser, the Polk County Science Building is a complex of several connected buildings. It holds offices for STEM professors, laboratories for science classes, larger lecture rooms, and several computer laboratories, as well as storage for the materials used by these departments. One of the most unique factors of the Polk Science Building is that it features Frank Lloyd Wright's only planetarium. The first showing there was on April 7, 1960, and it has served as an integral part of the astronomy program at Florida Southern. Over the years, however, deterioration occurred to the original structure and equipment. Renovations with upgraded technology were announced in 1999, and the planetarium was rededicated to John Raymond Miller III and his wife Eleanor Honeyman Miller on February 9, 2001. In 2021, the College received a grant from the National Park Service to renovate the Miller Planetarium; this grant was matched by local philanthropist Gregory Fancelli, the grandson of George Jenkins. These renovations repaired water damage, updated equipment, and updated the paint on the walls and the Cherokee Red floors to be closer to Frank Lloyd Wright's original color scheme.
Miller Planetarium