Unity Temple set to reopen following two-year restoration

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 11:39 am

http://chicago.curbed.com/2017/3/9/1487 ... estoration

article includes video interviews.

jmcnally · Post by **jmcnally** » Wed Mar 22, 2017 10:23 pm

re-opening date pushed back to July, no date certain

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Fri May 19, 2017 1:07 pm

Delayed restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple is triumphant

article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain ... olumn.html

The Unity Temple Restoration Foundation will hold an open house at Unity Temple, 875 Lake St. in Oak Park, on June 17 from 2-5 p.m. Visitors will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis with the last group admitted at 4:45 p.m. The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to educating the public about Wright's legacy, plans tours of the building following the completion of the restoration; more information at http://flwright.org/tours.

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Mon Jun 12, 2017 10:03 pm

https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/6/7/157 ... restoraton

More luscious photos!

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Wed Jun 28, 2017 1:06 pm

Tours start in July.

http://chicagoist.com/2017/06/27/frank_ ... hp#photo-1

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 7:21 am

Anybody know the scoop behind the pews?
Would'nt Wright have wanted to design them?
Can' t imagine he did though.
Got to be a story there.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 11:38 am

Although Joseph M. Siry's splendid book on Unity temple does not go into detail on the subject of the pews, nor does it show a detailed drawing, and there are several interior perspectives (pp 172, 178, 239) which do not show definitively the ends of the pews, which are the only differentiation from one pew to another, there is a cross-section on page 173 that does indicate that the intended design for the pews was as they are.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 11:59 am

Wow.
Hard to imagine really.
I'm sure there is a story there -
however long ago forgotten.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 4:34 pm

The scooped pew ends are a bit of a surprise -- but the curve is a perfect quarter-circle, so Wright is redeemed, as I see it. I'm glad to hear that a drawing memorializes this design.

A section drawing on page 132 of Monograph 2, Plate 229, T0611.16, shows a different design for the pew end panel. Perhaps the drawing in Siry bears a later number ?

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 5:41 pm

Yep - I did not think of or notice them being 1/4 circles.
They seemed stock ecclesiastical at a glance.

Yet, besides the globe lamps they may in fact be the only curves in the entire building.
What you show above seems more integral to the work, although more hazardous to the individual ingressing and egressing from said pew.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Sep 01, 2017 6:09 pm

Yes -- there's a major difference in ease of use between the two styles, particularly if the pew spacing is tight. Knowing Wright, we might suppose that to be the case ?

Using available horizontal measurements on that sheet, it seems that the balcony pew spacing is no more than 30 inches, with the opening between end panels no more than 14 inches. That's tight. So, the scooped end panel is an almost inevitable choice -- drawing or no drawing. (Mr Wright really leaned on his diminutive form as an ergometric source, didn't he !)

Note also the lack of a railing to the balcony parapet. No one ever toppled off a theater or church balcony, in Chicago back then ? Really ? Beauty -- the look of the thing -- that's Wright. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise . . .

And why not. "Let me have the luxuries, and the necessities can take care of themselves." There's room for all kinds of Architecture, surely . . .?

SDR

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 10:57 am

The one time I visited UT, during the 1987 Conservancy event, I sat in a balcony pew. I don't recall feeling hemmed in. Of course, Unitarians don't kneel, so there's no need to provide that extra space. Catholic churches must be more generously proportioned.

I measure the opening as 18", which is adequate. Perhaps not for Orson Welles, but for the average Midwesterner, keeping in mind that the point of pew design is not comfort, but the opposite. Give parishioners too comfy a seat, and they're apt to nod off during the sermon.

Reidy · Post by **Reidy** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 2:37 pm

UT's story is that the pews are indeed manufacturer's stock. The congregation didn't have enough money left to build Wright's custom designs.

The point of the scooped-out ends is to accommodate overcoats and the voluminous dresses of the era.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 4:18 pm

Row seating should be designed for the occasion when a single person in the middle of a row needs to enter or exit while the rest of the seats are occupied. Perhaps that doesn't happen as often in a church as in a theater . . .

SDR