Wright’s Religious Wright’s Architecture Guest Editor: Perkins Scott W. IN THIS ISSUE PRESERVATION | ADVOCACY ADVOCACY | EDUCATION EDUCATION

THE MAGAZINE OF THE FRANK BUILDING CONSERVANCY SPRING 2016 / VOLUME 7 / ISSUE 1 is a bi-annual publication of the Frank SaveWright Building Conservancy. Lloyd Wright Perkins Guest Editor: Scott W. Executive Editor: Susan Jacobs Lockhart Managing Editor: Joel Hoglund Copy Editor: Linda Botsford Contributing Editor: Janet Halstead Designer: Debra Nemeth Building The mission of the and Conservancy is to facilitate the preservation designed structures maintenance of the remaining advocacy education, through by Frank Lloyd Wright and technical services. tel: 312.663.5500 email: [email protected] web: savewright.org Building Conservancy © 2016, Frank Lloyd Wright Scott W. Perkins Scott W. Guest Editor

wright’s religious architecture religious wright’s

Cover photo: Beth Sholom Synagogue (1953) in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. Photo by Emily Cooperman Cover photo: Beth Sholom Synagogue (1953) in Elkins collection. the Conservancy’s from are Any images not credited During his now famous interview with television journalist Mike Wallace in 1957, Frank Lloyd Wright Lloyd Wright in 1957, Frank with television journalist now famous interview During his Mike Wallace and his views toward morality of the day the cultural his opinions of modernexpounded architecture, you “What do areas: all three addressed that seemingly a question pitched Wright Wallace religion. somewhat predictably, received, The answer he in the ?” architecture think of church shame.” the cause of great was “I think it’s his personality as the is nearly genetic, a defining trait of architecture in religious interest Wright’s of Unitarianism in the United promoter nephew of , an early son of a minister and mother having tacked engravings of even makes note of his States. Indeed, his autobiography as fruitful in his early career also proved his nursery walls. Family connections English cathedrals to Unity on the Lloyd Jones family’s Silsbee with the interior Lyman assisted Joseph presumably Wright Souls All . and at his uncle Jenkin’s near Spring Green, Here Valley Chapel (1886) in Helena and small, and large congregations he witnessed the familial aspects of (1885) in , Church inspirational spaces. of gathering and worshiping in understood the significance that perhaps span his designs religious it is Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture, Save for his domestic a diversity of the longest. They vary in materials, spatial planning and ornament, and reflect career his religious to appreciating assembles a variety of approaches beliefs. This issue of SaveWright Joseph M. Siry congregant. enthusiast or whether it is as a historian, architecture architecture, designs for places of worship in Wright’s symbolism materiality and religious discusses geometry, places two Southern University chapels into the between 1905 and 1954. Dale Allen Gyure series of build- as well as connecting them to the larger architecture context of academic religious short history of the Unitarian Meeting House for the campus. Mary Jane Hamilton’s ings by Wright of it, including the construction of custom hand-woven focuses especially on the domestic aspects - the cre for decades. Emily Cooperman chronicles church curtains by its members that graced the a mix of interactive, video and didactic displays as visitor center, ation of Beth Sholom Synagogue’s it for its members as well shop that successfully answers the challenge of interpreting well as a retail typically souvenirs of travel or collection of historic postcards, as the public. Patrick J. Mahoney’s in their oeuvre subcategory of Wright’s an important experiences, now serve to recall shared structures. depictions of his religious and living, working, learning and worshiping changed our way of thinking about architecture Wright on the following that your next visit to the buildings featured within it. It is the authors’ wish, and mine, us. his designs have provided for the inspiration appreciation pages brings with it a greater Executive Director’s Letter: Guardians, Givers and Guarantors Givers and Letter: Guardians, Executive Director’s Lloyd Jones Traditions Resound in First Unitarian Meeting House Resound in First Unitarian Lloyd Jones Traditions and Danforth Chapels: Chapels for Pfeiffer Wright’s Modern Academia of Frank Lloyd The Religious Structures Here: Were Wish You in Historic Postcards Wright President’s Message: Addressing the Issues Message: Addressing President’s Spaces Religious Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright’s for Communal Worship Visitor Center Exhibiting History: Beth Sholom’s

1 12 18 22 8 2 25 editor’s MESSAGE editor’s Scott W. Perkins is the Director Perkins is the Director Scott W. at . of Preservation Curator of He was previously Collections and Exhibitions Arts Center in at Bartlesville, . His most work, Building Bartlesville, recent the 1945-2000 (2008) explores impact post-WWII architectural and Wil - of Wright, Peters upon the liam Wesley Perkins has been community. Building a Frank Lloyd Wright member Conservancy board since 2008 and chairs its Public Sites Committee. ABOUT THE EDITOR CONTENTS

president’s MESSAGE

addressing the issues

Yes, there are many organizations containing the name Frank Lloyd Wright in their titles, and yes, determin- ing the function of those within that pantheon may pose difficulties. Nonetheless, it is clear that the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy is the only entity to contain “Building Conservancy” within its descrip- tor and, significantly, it is the only entity to focus ex- clusively on the conservation of Wright’s built works. “Conservation” must demand a broader focus, including a consideration of the architectural merit of the structures being conserved, their historical and present context, and the methods appropriate to their overnight venues, the Conservancy’s role as a preserva- restoration and upkeep, now and in the future. Further, tion advocate, and details of Wright structures, both in “conservation,” as we all recognize, must have a the United States and Japan. political focus, as development and other economic pressures challenge the architectural status quo as it The present issue’s focus on Wright’s religious archi- relates to Wright. tecture furthers our understanding of a unique class of Wright’s buildings and the evolution of his ideas on These are the issues that the Conservancy, its staff, the proper relationship between architecture and wor- its board and its membership have addressed through ship in the varied religious contexts with which he was lectures, architectural tours and conferences at Wright- presented. As you will discover, several of the articles rich sites, publications, technical advice, and both in this issue focus on particular structures, whereas an- advocacy for and assistance in the preservation of other provides an overall analysis of Wright’s religious endangered structures. work, and a final article approaches his religious archi- In many respects, the Conservancy’s SaveWright maga- tecture from a postcard perspective. All demonstrate zine, issued for the first time in its present form in the the unique architectural merit of Wright’s designs and spring of 2010, exemplifies and expands upon the provide a further perspective on the essential nature of Conservancy’s multifaceted conservation mission. In the Conservancy’s mission. that regard, I note the recognition of the significance of Wright as reflected the very first SaveWright issue, “The Making of a World Heritage Nomination,” an issue that focused on the rationale for and process Edith Payne involved in the Conservancy-generated nomination of President 10 of Wright’s buildings as UNESCO World Heritage Frank Lloyd Wright Sites (a process that remains ongoing). I note, as well, Building Conservancy Owner, Richardson House issues devoted to advice to homeowners, energy ef- ficiency, landscaping solutions, information regarding

Ron Scherubel Guest Editor

1 PHOTO COURTESY OF RESTORATION FOUNDATION PHOTO COURTESY OF UNITY TEMPLE RESTORATION Unity Temple (1905) in Oak Park, . PHOTO BY DAVID HEALD, COURTESY OF THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION HEALD, COURTESY OF THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION PHOTO BY DAVID Unity Temple auditorium facing south.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Religious Architecture: Spaces for Communal Worship

BY JOSEPH M. SIRY

Although created for varied institutional clients and in different settings, Frank Lloyd Wright’s religious auditoriums share a common concern for mutual visibility and

ABOUT THE AUTHOR audibility to enhance the communal nature of worship.

Joseph Siry is the author of Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd He was also attentive to the symbolic or figurative character of each of these projects, Wright and Architecture for which were iconographically legible forms that represented their clients’ particular Liberal Religion (Cambridge, denominational cultures. In his autobiography, Wright wrote, “My religion so far as it 1996) and Beth Sholom went was Unitarian,” and he claimed to descend from Unitarian ministers on both his Synagogue: Frank Lloyd father’s and mother’s sides. Wright and Modern Religious Architecture (Chicago, 2012). The earliest works of religious architecture with which Wright was involved were the He was the recipient of a (1885-86) for his extended maternal Lloyd Jones family and its neighbors Wright Spirit Award in 2015. in their valley south of Spring Green, Wisconsin, and All Souls Church (1885-86), for his uncle the Reverend Jenkin Lloyd Jones in the Oakwood district on Chicago’s South Side.

2 After starting his practice, Wright’s first commission for a major public hall was the project that became the Abraham Lincoln Center (1897-1905), which was to succeed his uncle’s neighboring All Souls Church. Its nearly square auditorium with rising tiers of seats around three sides of both a main level and upper balcony, facing the frontal platform and podium, directly influenced his design for the new Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Unity Temple, on which Wright began work in the summer of 1905. Unlike basilican churches, Unity Temple has a cubic auditorium only 35 feet wide between balcony fronts. This room seats 450 in pews on the central floor, and in lower and upper balconies around three sides, all within intimate range of the frontal central pulpit and the organ screen behind. Wright called the building “a modern meeting-house,” and he designed clerestory windows on all four sides of a worship room, wherein everyone can see and hear each other while focused on the pulpit and choir. In presenting Wright’s design to Oak Park, where medievally styled churches of other Protestant de- nominations were the norm, Unity Temple’s minister asserted, “Without tower or spire it expresses the COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY). ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ARCHITECTURAL & FINE ARTS LIBRARY, ARCHIVES (THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART | AVERY PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FOUNDATION Annie M. Pfeiffer Chapel interior looking northwest, showing the flat ceiling spirit of the ideal. By its form it expresses the thought, skylight inside the northwest structural column, and cantilevers supporting inherent in the liberal faith, that God should not be lantern walls and the western bow-tie end, as rebuilt after a 1944 hurricane sought in the sky but on earth among the children of and after the remodeling of seating completed in 1967. men.” In the spirit of Unitarian appreciation for world religions, Unity Temple’s concrete exterior alluded to non-Western temples, including Japanese and Mayan works known to Wright. Its minister wrote: “Informed “By its form it expresses the thought, inherent in the liberal faith, by the same spirit which characterized the ancient tem- that God should not be sought in the sky but on earth among the ples, this structure typifies the thought ‘while religions are many, religion is one.’ … The past and the present children of men,” asserted Unity Temple’s minister. forms of religion are thus brought together in a spirit of unity.” As in later religious structures, Wright here chose a distinct geometric figure. In Unity Temple, this is the square developed as the cube, whose 1:1:1 ratio Wright’s religious architecture was related to his of dimensions signified the Unitarian ideal of unity, designs for theaters. His view of the modern theater as as did the building’s novel monolithic construction in a temple for culturally elevated drama shaped his later reinforced concrete exposed inside and out. unbuilt projects for Woodstock, (1931-32), and Hartford, Connecticut (1948-49), as well as his built for the The- ater Center (1955-59). In these, he developed a plan 3 When its building burned in 1939, Wright was asked to design a new auditorium that could function as a theater or cinema as well as a sanctuary, since the church aspired to be “the social center for the mass- “All forms of religion have a basic desire to function in harmony es.” This design also included the reflex-angle seating. Dedicated in January 1942, the Community Church, with their beliefs and I try to help them—to materialize their ideas with its exterior cantilevered balconies, looked in something beautiful for all humanity,” said Wright. modernistic and non–sectarian, conveying Jenkins’s ideal of “the church of the future.” Conveying a democratic ideal through geometry was central to Wright’s building for the First Unitarian Society of Madison, Wisconsin, (1946-52). As a for seating based on what he called the reflex angle, “country church,” in the tradition of Unity Chapel, meaning groups of seats arranged at 30-degree angles this building marked its congregation’s relocation to a around a frontal stage projecting into the audience. then-rural site looking across fields to Lake Mendota. Wright used this reflex angle plan in the Annie M. As the minister wrote to Wright: “We conceive the Pfeiffer Chapel for in Lake- core to be one large room which will be usable for all land (1938-41) and the Community Church in Kansas the functions of a parish calling for a large assembly City, Missouri (1939-42). The first, built as both audi- room. That is this room will be adaptable for worship, torium and chapel for President Ludd Spivey’s liberal lectures, forums, recreation, dinners, movies, recitals, Methodist college, had a compact plan of reflex angles dramatics.” Wright shaped a concise triangular room on a main floor and balcony. [See Dale Allen Gyure’s that could be rearranged in front of its stone pulpit be- article on p. 18 for more on Pfeiffer Chapel.] low the organ and choir loft. The space embodied his ideal of democratic character in church architecture. The democratic ideal informed the Reverend Burris Jenkins’ Community Church, which had broken with Another line of inquiry among Wright’s worship the liberal Disciples of Christ to adopt an open mem- rooms was his unbuilt Steel Cathedral of 1926-27 for bership policy and become the largest Protestant and its adaptation in his Beth Sholom congregation in Kansas City, with 4,200 members. Synagogue of 1953-59, in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, PHOTO © MARK HERTZBERG Conveying a democratic ideal through geometry was central to Wright’s building for the First Unitarian Society of Madison. PHOTO BY BALTHAZAR KORAB, COURTESY OF KORAB IMAGE PHOTO BY BALTHAZAR First Unitarian Society of Madison, interior view looking north toward pulpit showing plastered ceiling beneath underside of roof trusses, photographed in 1991. 4