“Disney World, Busch Gardens and the Kennedy Space Center have taken the places of earlier Florida attractions like Bok Tower, Cypress Gardens and Weeki Wachee Springs-all now distant and almost forgotten,” says Forer.īut perhaps a renaissance is in order for Bok Tower with the publication of the book next month. Though Bok Tower Gardens drew attention when it first opened-President Calvin Coolidge attended the opening dedication in 1929, an event documented with photos on almost every newspaper cover in America-interest in the garden has waned. “The sound of the bells reaches for miles,” Dan Forer, who photographed the book, tells DuJour.Īt Bok Tower Gardens, landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., sprawling fields and winding forest paths dotted with ponds, oaks, palms, ferns, azaleas, magnolias and much more make the garden a perfect place to find serene sanctuary-not just for its visitors but for birds, whose natural habitat is now preserved for ages. And although the tower’s interior is not open to the public, visitors can listen to daily recitals from the carillon’s bells, some of which are six feet across-others, fist-sized. The top of Bok Tower holds a 60-bell carillon, earning the nickname of The Singing Tower. Materials like Georgian marble, Florida coquina stone, fired clay with ceramic glazes and sparkling jewels are built into the 205-foot-high monument. The art at Bok Tower-the iron work, the ceramic work, the sculpture, the color, the texture,” he says, “is all integrated seamlessly into the exterior of the building.” Viewing the structure, it’s easy to see what he means. Tresiter describes the project as “the last of what they call the Golden Age of Architecture art was part of the environment. to design the tower in a Gothic Revival and Art Deco style with a dash of classic romanticism. It’s nice, in a way, to go somewhere beautiful and lose yourself.”īok hired architect Milton B. Bok thought it would be nice to have a serene garden, a sanctuary or a refuge, for both people and birds.
“In the 1920s,” says architect Kenneth Treister, who co-wrote Bok Tower Gardens: America’s Taj Mahal, “the mind was being inundated with the hectic life of modern society. It was the 1920s, when the sudden production of cars and construction of roads led Bok, concerned about the destruction of Florida’s natural landscape, to purchase 56 acres of land with a very specific plan in mind. And with one project in particular, Bok fulfilled his grandmother’s wish.Īn immigrant from Holland, Bok made his fortune ascending the ranks to editor-in-chief of Ladies’ Home Journal and eventually retired-as many still do-to Central Florida. Bok worked to improve healthcare in the United States, was a benefactor of the arts and collaborated with Frank Lloyd Wright to move architectural philosophy forward. “Make the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.”īestowed on Edward Bok by his grandmother at the turn of the 20th century, these words sparked a crusade for social change that even his grandmother couldn’t have imagined.
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