Unity Temple
Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church building that houses the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation at 875 Lake Street in Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The structure, designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the Prairie style, is cited as an early example of modern architecture. The building consists of an auditorium to the north and a church house called Unity House to the south. The two sections, and an entrance pavilion between them, are made of reinforced concrete.
The congregation was formed as the Unity Church of Oak Park in 1871. It originally occupied a Gothic Revival building and went through several pastors in its first two decades. Rodney Johonnot, who became the senior pastor in 1892, began planning a replacement structure in the early 1900s. After the original church burned down in 1905, the board of trustees selected a site on Lake Street and hired Wright to design a new building, Unity Temple. Wright's plans were approved in 1906 after much debate, and construction began on May 15 of that year. After various delays, Unity House opened in September 1907, and the auditorium was finished in October 1908; the church was dedicated on September 26, 1909. Over the years, the temple attracted visitors from around the U.S. and the world. The church was restored in the 1960s, and it gradually underwent further upgrades from the 1970s to the 2000s. Unity Temple was completely refurbished from 2015 to 2017.
The temple is decorated with abstract motifs instead of overtly religious imagery. The facade is made of Portland cement, which has been washed away to expose the gravel underneath; there are recessed clerestory windows near the top. Unlike contemporary churches, Unity Temple was designed without a spire; instead, the roof consists of multiple flat, overhanging concrete slabs. The auditorium is shaped like a Greek cross, with stair towers at each corner. It has two levels of seating surrounding a central pulpit, in addition to clerestories and skylights. Unity House has skylights and two balconies.
Unity Temple has received extensive architectural commentary over the years, and it has been the subject of many media works, including books and museum exhibits. Its design is credited with having helped inspire multiple architects. Unity Temple is designated as a National Historic Landmark and is part of The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, a World Heritage Site.
Early history
Eleven members of the Union Church—a liberal Protestant congregation in Oak Park, a village in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois—met on January 25, 1871, to discuss the formation of a new congregation. E. W. Hoard hosted a meeting to raise money for a church building, collecting more than $5,000. Unity Church of Oak Park, a non-denominational church, was formed that March. The congregation acquired land at the southwest corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Marion Street, south of the Union Pacific West railroad line, from Milton C. Niles. The treasurer, Edwin O. Gale, provided $5,600, or nearly half of the $13,689 cost. It is unknown who designed the original church, which was built in the Gothic Revival style. The original church was a rectangle topped by a spire. Inside was a ground-level parish hall with an auditorium above it; a Chicago Tribune article from 1872 described the church as having a stone foundation and wood frame. Within the auditorium was a raised pulpit and rows of seats bisected by a central aisle.Work on the new church began in early 1871, and the basement was finished later that year. A consecration ceremony was held on August 11, 1872. In its early years, the congregation was composed of Universalists and Unitarians. As such, the church went through several pastors in its first decade. In 1882, some of the congregation's Universalist members formed a sub-congregation affiliated with the Universalist Church of America; the congregation at large remained unaffiliated with any denomination. After going through six pastors in fifteen years, the church selected Augusta Jane Chapin as its pastor in 1886. During Chapin's tenure, Anna Jones Wright, the mother of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, joined the congregation.
Chapin left the congregation in December 1891, and Rodney Johonnot became the senior pastor the next year. During Johonnot's first four years, the congregation grew to 225 members. A church organ was installed in 1897. The congregation had decided to build a new structure by March 1901, when members voted to establish a fund for the construction of a new temple. Johonnot felt that the existing building could not accommodate all of the congregation's activities. The congregation hired H. P. Harned to design a new structure on the existing site, south of the railroad tracks. By then, numerous churches were being built in Oak Park, and many of the newer churches were being built on Lake Street, north of the tracks. In December 1904, the board of trustees again asked the congregation for donations for a new temple. Following a meeting in May 1905, a committee was appointed to discuss plans for the new building.
Temple development
The original Unity Church was destroyed on June 4, 1905, when a lightning strike started a blaze; firefighters were unable to extinguish the flames because of low water pressure. The fire caused about $20,000 in damage and destroyed everything except for the piano, chairs, paintings, dishes, and utensils. Within one week, the congregation had appointed four committees to oversee fundraising, site selection, design, and construction. In the meantime, the congregation temporarily met at Nakama Hall. The nearby First Baptist Church also hosted some of the congregation's events.Selection of site and architect
Initially, it was estimated that the new building would cost $50,000. The fundraising committee requested donations from various sources, while the site selection committee recommended that the new temple be built "in some place more central". At the time, two-thirds of the congregation lived south of Lake Street, and congregants favored a site near that street; only one person preferred to keep the existing site. The committee considered several locations throughout the village. Two of these sites were located at the intersection of Lake Street and Kenilworth Avenue: a private house on the southwestern corner, and a vacant lot owned by Gale on the southeastern corner. In early August 1905, the congregation paid Gale $10,000 or $11,000. The tract measured along Kenilworth Avenue and either or along Lake Street. The site complemented the nearby First Presbyterian and Grace Episcopal churches slightly to the west.When the site was selected, the congregation had raised $30,000 toward the new building, and they began searching for an architect shortly afterward. On August 30, the planning committee met with nine architects, selecting four finalists: Frank Lloyd Wright, Dwight H. Perkins, William Augustus Otis, and Normand Smith Patton. At their September meeting, Unity Church's board of trustees voted to allow the planning committee to select an architect. This person was to draw up plans for an edifice costing no more than $30,000.
Wright had been selected by mid-September. The engineer Charles E. Roberts, who led the church's building committee, had influenced the church's decision to select Wright. According to Wright, the board had considered hosting an architectural design competition, but the historian Joseph Siry writes that there is no evidence that the board ever considered such a competition. Construction News reported that the temple would cost $35,000 and would be a one-story, brick-and-stone edifice. Though Wright may have considered using brick, this was never recorded in his plans. Wright instead proposed using concrete to save money, since, at the time, the church had only $45,000 on hand. The temple was the first public building that Wright designed by himself.
Design
Original plans
The trustees mandated that the new house of worship include a sanctuary for worship, a meeting room for secular events, and a classroom for the Sunday school. Furthermore, as Lake Street was a major street, Wright had to design a monumental building that would also fit the church's budget. Many of the original drawings have been lost or destroyed, but Wright extensively documented his thought process in his autobiography. Wright wrote that Johonnot had wanted a Mission-style building, and he avoided traditional church architecture, instead proposing to the planning committee a "temple to man... in which to study man himself for his God's sake". In the early plans, the temple's northern wall was aligned with the house to the east, and the north–south axis was aligned with the house to the south. Wright created physical drawings only after extensively refining the plans mentally. He also produced a plaster model of the temple, which he presented to the planning committee.The entrance to the main sanctuary, known as the auditorium, was intentionally positioned away from the streetcar lines on Lake Street. Wright did not want to put the meeting room and Sunday school in the auditorium, as he felt that it would "spoil the simplicity of the room". Accordingly, these rooms were instead placed in a separate church house called Unity House, which was linked to the auditorium by a central entrance hall. Having decided upon the site layout, Wright next designed the cube-shaped auditorium. Some preliminary drawings for the auditorium still exist. These include Scheme A, which called for 388 seats facing a pulpit on the south wall, and the rejected Scheme B, which called for 478 seats facing the north wall.
Design changes
In December 1905, the planning committee received Wright's plans and recommended that the board of trustees approve them. The same month, Gale gave the congregation a strip of land on Kenilworth Avenue. By the beginning of 1906, the site of the original building had been sold for $6,500. The congregation decided to proceed with construction, even though it had received only one bid for the general contract, which exceeded the church's budget by $8–10 thousand. Thomas Skillin, who led the board of trustees, reported that the temple was to cost $40,000 but that there was only $31,000 available. The trustees considered modifying the plans, splitting work into two phases, or borrowing money. Wright offered to reduce the cost to $35,000 by revising the plans and deferring installation of the furnishings.Skillin objected that the auditorium was too small and dark. At its meeting on January 18, 1906, the board asked Skillin and Johonnot to discuss possible modifications with Wright. Subsequently, Wright revised the auditorium's design, and he invited 75 members of the congregation to see the drawings and models for Unity Temple at his studio. The board approved Wright's revisions on February 7, on the condition that no more than $36,200 be spent. Details of the design were reported in the local media on February 24, and a brochure describing the final plan was published on March 4. Wright's assistant Charles E. White Jr. said the planning process had been marked by "endless fighting". Wright continued refining the design details even after the final plans were accepted and partially completed. Despite initial objections to Wright's design, Oak Park residents eventually came to like it.