Lakeland is going out of this world thanks to Florida Southern College’s newly restored Miller Planetarium. It’s been closed since 2004, but the community is invited back inside Central Florida’s oldest planetarium starting Saturday, Sept. 26.
Frank Lloyd Wright dreamed up the planetarium — the only one he ever designed — but he never got to see the finished product. It was completed in 1958, one year after his final visit to FSC, and was in use for decades until the projector malfunctioned in 2004. Since then, the planetarium has sat unused, pending funding for a full restoration.
Thanks to state funding, federal grants, and private donors, four years of renovations are now complete. The Miller Planetarium now looks exactly as Wright designed it, including the original theater-in-the-round seating, but with a state-of-the-art projector at the center. Jack Coffey, Manager of Tours and Educational Programs, said it’s now one of the most architecturally authentic buildings on campus.