Work To Begin on 1929 Florida Tower
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Dec. 1, 2009
For 80 years, an ornate tower has loomed over the dense foliage of a tropical garden in Lake Wales, Fla., its colorful tiles darkening in rainstorms and sparkling in sunlight. This month, workers will begin restoring the top third of the 205-foot-tall Singing Tower at Bok Tower Gardens.
"I've worked here for 23 years, and I've not seen all there is to see on the tower; there are so many carvings," says David Price, president of Bok Tower Gardens, a National Historic Landmark. "It's a pretty spiritual type of structure."
While vacationing in Florida in 1921, Edward Bok, founder of Ladies' Home Journal, decided to build a bird sanctuary. He hired Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to design the grounds and Milton Medary to fashion a tower that was "unique in all the world." Stone sculptor Lee Lawrie created the tower's coquina-stone facade and art deco carvings.
Today Bok's 250-acre estate—which includes gardens, a trail, the 1932 Pinewood Estate, a visitors center, and the Singing Tower—is open to the public year-round. The tower, which houses a library and offices, is not open to the general public, but its 60 bells ring out across the grounds every day.
During the 10-week restoration effort, workers from Sarasota-based Structural Preservation Services will repair the neo-Gothic tower's cast-iron grilles and replace steel beams inside the parapet. Bok Tower Gardens received a $350,000 matching grant from the Florida Division of Historical Resources for the project, which will focus on two of the tower's eight sides.
"We're starting [with two sides] because that's where we found the most damage, and the intent would be to move around the rest of the building," says engineer Derek Trelstad, an associate at New York-based Robert Silman Associates, which is overseeing the project. "There's no threat of failure at this point; they're just doing it in the way that most people should do it, in a prophylactic way."
It's not the first time the tower has been restored; work first began in the 1970s, and this project is the fourth phase of the tower's restoration, Price says. (Save America's Treasures awarded a grant of $450,000 in 2005 toward an earlier phase of the tower's restoration.)
"It has been an ongoing process," Price says. "It's almost like an exploration as much as a restoration."
Correction: In an earlier version of this story, we misidentified the gardens' landscape architect as Frederick Law Olmsted. The gardens were designed by his son, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. We regret the error.
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Comments
Submitted by Jane at: December 28, 2010
It's inaccurate to say that Bok founded the Ladies' Home Journal. He was simply an early editor. The magazine was founded by Louisa Knapp Curtis.
Submitted by Tracy at: December 16, 2009
A most beautiful place, and a must-see if you're in Central Florida.
Submitted by Len at: December 11, 2009
Bok tower has iron work by famed artist Samuel Yellin, I believe.
Submitted by Ralph M at: December 11, 2009
This is one of the world's most beautiful places - if you have not gone there, you should consider it. The tower is awe-inspiring and the gardens can be explored for hours.
Submitted by Brian at: December 3, 2009
Matt, it mentions Frederick Law Olmsted JUNIOR. Perhaps that was his son.
Submitted by Matt at: December 3, 2009
I love to read these articles, but hate that the writers seem to do just enough research to squeak by, if that. For instance, in this article, it says Frederick Law Olmsted designed the gardens, yet a quick search on the internet would revel he'd been dead for 20 years before the garden was commissioned.
Submitted by Brian at: December 2, 2009
Click on the photo for an enlarged version. Wow! This reminds me of something from Lord of the Rings. I am very impressed and I wish that we had more places like this. I would love to see a new era of architecture where this type of stuff is built... with residential lofts in the inside, as akward as that may sound.