Frank Lloyd Wright Chicago church 1905-8.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959)’s father had been a Universal­ist preacher. With their emphasis on a loving God, Universalists were early advocates of endling slavery and the first church to ordain women. In 1886 Univ­ers­alist Aug­usta Chapin bec­ame minister of the Oak Park Unity Church Chicago, attr­acting new members to the assembly including Lloyd Wright’s mother Anna. Frank’s maternal family were Welsh Unitarians; his uncle Jenkin Lloyd Jones was a noted Unit­arian preacher in Chic­ago where Frank and his first wife Cath­erine Tobin were married in 1889. Wright identified with Unit­ar­­ian­ism’s rational humanism i.e the uniting of all beings with the divine presence. 

Unity Church Oak Park Il

1905-8, Wiki 

A graduate of Harvard Divin­ity School, Pastor R Joh­onnot of Unity Church of Oak Park was known for his lib­eral views. When Unity Ch­urch burned down in Jun 1905, Frank Lloyd Wright was commissioned to re­build for the Unitarian congregation. And in 1906 Dr Joh­onnot published a booklet: A New Edifice for Unity Church. He want­ed a modern building to express the prin­ciples of unity, sim­plicity, freed­om, truth, beauty and reason. Aged 38, Wright was the ideal architect. The design he pres­ent­ed ignored most exist­ing conv­entions for church ar­ch­it­ecture. On the choice of building material Wright stated “There was only one mat­er­ial to choose; concrete, because it was cheap.” Yet Wright kn­ew that concrete was un­con­­ventional for Amer­ic­an and Europ­ean rel­igious arch­itecture; concrete was ugly!

Wright’s philosophy of organic architecture meant his concrete was left uncovered. His mat­erials defined his architect­ure in In the Cause of Ar­chitecture (1908). Without good reason we should not depart from the custom­ary, especially in regard to sacred things. But if the change was gov­­erned by sound reas­on, adjustment is needed. Bring out the nat­ure of the mat­er­ials. Let their nature intim­at­ely into your scheme. Reveal the wood, brick or stone in your designs, they are all by nature friendly and beautiful. No treat­ment can be a matter of fine art when those natural features are neglected.

Approached from Lake St, the building was a massive con­crete shape, sh­elt­ered under a wide flat roof, on a corner of two busy roads. Wright cl­everly ma­nipulated the sanctuary entrance; he guided the visitor via dark passages, as­c­ending into the open, br­ight sanctuary, the heart of a spacious buil­d­ing. Its elegant art­iculat­ion and warm colours contr­asted with the grey concrete ext­er­ior. With no overt rel­ig­ious symb­ols, its geometric proportions harmonised. No open­ing was seen; the top portion of the sanctuary appeared light and transparent except for high clerestory windows with leaded glass and recessed behind piers and overhanging eaves. Thus the building received their natural light.

Set in a concrete grid were 25 squ­are skylights of amber tinted leaded glass. The effect was intended “…to get a sense of a happy cloud­less day into the room… daylight sifting through between the intersecting conc­rete beams, filtering through ceiling lights. Thus the light would have the warmth of sunlight.”

Wright's separate spaces provided for 2 different functions in the mod­ern ch­urch: a sacred place for worship/Unity Temple and a secular one/ Par­ish House for oth­er fac­il­ities. Separating these two functions all­ow­ed for the creation of a specific at­mosphere. The plan showed the two build­ings united by an ent­rance lobby hidden from its surr­oundings, all­owing visitors to ascend from st­reet lev­el to enter the sacred build­ing. The low hall united the build­ings; to the south it op­ened directly onto Parish House with its a central meet­ing hall and bal­c­ony classrooms.

The architect had been given a budget of $45,000, so he chose concrete to save money. Yet the completed building ultimately cost twice the cont­racted pr­ice, due to unexpected problems. In Sept 1909 the new building was dedicated, even though its unique de­sign bore little res­emblance to the other churches along Lake St.

Wright’s theory of organic design was seen in the harmony of the building’s geometric architecture and decorative elements. The cubes were a revolutionary design in the religious arch­itecture world. There was no steeple reaching upwards; instead Wright's focus was within the spaces themselves and their functions. The worship space was a grand 4-storey space with seating on different levels and 3 sides of the room so that noone was 40'+ from the pulpit.

Unity Temple was among the first monumental buildings to be com­prised of reinforced concrete that was poured on site. The con­cr­ete gave the tem­p­le a solid, bold finish that created its monumentality, used to mould the organic details that decorate the exterior of the Prairie-style building. Frank’s Unity Temple was called the greatest public building of the architect’s Chicago years, and one of the U.S’s most famous sac­red buildings. It has been a U.S National Historic Land­mark since 1971.

Wright's leaded glass encircles the flat, coffered ceiling

Column decoration

Wiki

Community Space

FrankLloydWrightFoundation

The Trustees thanked Wright: “We extend to the architect our most hearty congratulations upon the wonderful achievement embodied in the new ed­if­ice and further extend to him our most sincere thanks for the great ser­vice which he has rendered to the parish and to the comm­un­ity. We bel­ieve the building will long endure as a monument to his art­is­tic genius and that it will stand forth as a masterpiece of art and architecture.” Their words were prophetic. Other concrete churches were soon accepted!

Wright’s church is not my favourite in the U.S, but I was very keen to examine his notion of Form Follows Function in a religious building. Thank you to the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust.