When Anne Kerr stepped into her presidency at Florida Southern College in June 2004, she was in for a surprise. Her job description suddenly included a heavy dose of architectural conservation. The development didn’t spring from demanding alumni or outside pressures. It was of her own making when she realized that the 12 Frank Lloyd Wright structures on campus, said to be the largest collection of the architect’s works on one site in the world, were treasures in dire need of attention. Beyond the ventilation ducts and bundles of computer cables snaking through the hallways of buildings that had been hastily “modernized,” crumbling blocks, listing walls and disintegrating rebar were her inheritance.

In order to determine the extent of the challenges, Kerr hired restoration architect Jeffrey Baker to look into why the storied architect’s buildings were aging so poorly. She chose Baker’s firm, Mesick, Cohen, Wilson, Baker Architects of Albany, New York, for its breadth of experience in managing historically significant restoration projects that have included the New York State Capitol and Thomas Jefferson’s homes, Monticello and Poplar Forest. Baker approached the work with starry-eyed wonder, as he considers Wright one of the greatest architects of all time.