Our Landmark Site
"Architecture is the thoughtful making
of spaces.
It is the creating of spaces that evoke
a feeling of appropriate use."
– Louis Kahn
Our church building is widely recognized as one of the most architecturally significant structures in the Rochester area, and is regularly visited and studied by architects and students from around the world.
In the late 1950s construction of Midtown Plaza required the demolition of our downtown church building. The congregation resolved to replace that building (designed by Richard Upjohn, founder of the American Institute of Architects) with one by a leading 20th century architect. A search committee interviewed a number of nationally known architects before recommending Louis Kahn.
Kahn's initial concept sketch began with a question mark, chosen to represent the sanctuary, at the center of the building surrounded by a circle to serve as an ambulatory representing the shades of belief possible in a Unitarian congregation. Surrounding all were the classrooms of the church school, in Kahn's words "so the school became the walls which surround the question." Development of the central sanctuary presented the architect with a practical problem: how to bring natural light into a totally enclosed space. Kahn's solution was four large towers at the corners of the central room, through which the changing light of the seasons and the days fills the room "like a silver chalice" as one author has said.
Other features of architectural interest include the use of brick, concrete block, and poured concrete given texture by the imprint of the thin fir strips used to construct the forms; the deeply protected windows and window seating in the exterior classrooms; and the woven hangings which adorn the side walls of the sanctuary. Additional information (including a self-guided tour) is available from the church office, where postcards and souvenir bricks removed during installation of an elevator may be purchased. Other information is also available online:
- Changes to the building made over the years, illustrated by photographs made available by our History Committee.
- Text of a brochure by Jean France, architectural historian and a member of the original building committee, available to visitors.
- The University of Pennsylvania on-line architecture resource has more information on our building (including a rather poor-quality photo and an interesting early sketch of the floorplan) and on Louis Kahn.
- A good one-page overview of Kahn's work, which includes three small illustrations of our building, was once hosted by the Architecture History Department of North Dakota State University and later by one of the original authors; it's since disappeared, but here's a possibly imperfect copy.
- There's a web-based collection of architectural history images at Bryn Mawr College with six nice photographs of the church.
- An architect from Ottowa has put up a number of nicely atmospheric photographs of the interior of our auditorium, as well as photos of other Kahn buildings.
- A well-crafted Google image search is worth trying from time to time; last we looked there were photos of our church (some taken from our site!) on servers in Oregon, Switzerland, Italy, and Japan.
- Finally, our building is detailed on The Great Buildings Collection CD-ROM; the associated website offers further information. Unfortunately, the interesting 3D models that can be downloaded from this site misrepresent the auditorium light towers which are such a distinctive feature of Kahn's design.
October 27 2007