RACINE - It's been more than 50 years since a world-famous architect gave the SC Johnson headquarters campus a major facelift.

That will change with Project Honor, SCJ Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Fisk Johnson's tribute to his father, the late Sam Johnson.

With Monday's ceremonial ground breaking, Fisk Johnson unveiled to employees his plan for Fortaleza Hall and the attached Community Building.

The Fortaleza name is based on the Brazilian city with special significance to the Johnson family. In 1935 Fisk's grandfather, the late H.F. Johnson Jr., flew an S-38 Sikorsky sea plane to Fortaleza, Brazil, in search of a sustainable source of the carnauba palm tree, then the indispensable ingredient in Johnson Wax.

Fortaleza Hall will be a curved, glass-sided structure built on the SCJ campus slightly southeast of the Golden Rondelle Theater on 14th Street.

Construction will start this month. Johnson said he hopes Fortaleza Hall will open by fall 2009.

"I think it'll do a great thing for our campus here," he said.

Johnson cited three reasons for Project Honor:

* He called it another big step in the "continuing evolution of our wanting to create a great place to work at this company, and this is part of what we're doing to improve our campus."

The intent, he said, "is to give our campus much more of a campus-like feeling like you get on a university campus. … It'll be a more dynamic, fun place to be."

* To create another reason for people to visit Racine. Johnson said the existing SCJ headquarters draws more than 25,000 visitors each year.

"I would hope, if we do this right, it could be another big point of attraction that could draw people in," he said. Public visiting periods will be established, he said.

* To honor Sam Johnson, his direct predecessor as SCJ chairman.

"Dad left a huge legacy, both professionally and personally," Fisk Johnson said.

He said he discussed the concept with his father while he was alive, then decided to put it in place after his father died May 22, 2004.

Plane on display

The crown jewel in the glittering Fortaleza Hall will be the replica Sikorsky sea plane the Spirit of Carnauba that Sam, Fisk and Curt Johnson flew to Fortaleza in 1998.

The plane, with a 72-foot wingspan, will hang centrally beneath a skylight with the square footage of a typical new home.

Visitors will be able to see the Carnauba aircraft from all levels of the building - which will also be lit at night.

"I can just envision driving down 14th Street on a cold winter night and seeing this incredible plane hanging there," Fisk Johnson said. "This plane has really turned into a symbol of this company … the spirit of adventure, the spirit of family."

The 1935 expedition to Fortaleza rejuvenated H.F. Johnson Jr. The next year, he hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design a new Johnson Wax headquarters building. H.F. wanted to eliminate the drabness and dullness of the typical American workplace by creating an uplifting and invigorating environment.

The resulting structure at 1525 Howe St., which opened in 1939, remains an architectural

landmark.

World-class designers

Project Honor enlists the services of a world-class architect, Lord Norman Foster, and his London-based Foster + Partners.

The curving glass design weds Fortaleza Hall, the showier part of the project, with a 44,000-square-foot, multi-function community building that will be part SCJ campus cafeteria, fitness center, bank, company store, concierge and atrium.

The building, with a sphere-shaped floor plan, will be 42 feet, 8 inches tall at the peak, a height that aligns with the key horizontal line on the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings.

According to SCJ, the building will be large enough to house a Boeing 747 jetliner, with plenty of room to spare.

As for other aircraft, there is still the original Sikorsky H.F. Johnson Jr. flew in 1935. It later crashed into the ocean. The wreckage was not found until summer 2006.

The plane rests in Manokwari Bay, near the large island of New Guinea north of Australia.

The plane was sold to a petroleum company after the expedition to Brazil. It crashed shortly after takeoff during a flight in 1938. The pilot, not related to the Johnson family, swam to shore and survived.

Johnson said it's unclear so far whether it will be feasible to raise what is left of the original sea plane - without destroying it - and put it on display at Fortaleza Hall along with the replica.

"My dream is still to put the two (planes) together," he said.