The architect for this church was Louis I. Kahn. He designed the new building in 1959, of brick, concrete block, cast-in-place reinforced concrete, in a temperate, suburban area, in Modern style. The First Unitarian Church congregation had been worshipping in a church building on Temple and Cortland Streets (these streets no longer exist) and had sold the building to the Midtown Plaza developers with agreements that they could continue to occupy it until 1961 when construction of this building was expected to be completed. (Two footnotes here: first, the building on Temple and Cortland Streets had been the home of Third Presbyterian Church until they moved to their current location on East Ave; second, Midtown Plaza construction activity weakened the old structure, so they needed to worship temporarily at the Dryden Theatre for the duration of the construction of this building.
This building was completed in 1962. "It was described as one of "the most significant works of religious architecture of the century" by Paul Goldberger, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning architectural critic. (
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"Its exterior is characterized by deeply folded brick walls created by a series of thin, two-story light hoods that shield windows from direct sunlight. The sanctuary's complex ceiling has light towers in each corner to bring in indirect natural light." (
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The story of the design process that Kahn followed at First Unitarian has been described as "almost classic in architectural history and theory". (
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Kahn began by creating what he called a Form drawing to represent the essence of what he intended to build. He drew a square to represent the sanctuary, and around the square he drew concentric circles to indicate an ambulatory, a corridor and the church school. In the center he placed a question mark to represent his understanding that, in his words, "the form realization of Unitarian activity was bound around that which is Question. Question eternal of why anything."" (
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The interior floor plan and additional information about the interior can be found on Wikipedia (from compiled other sources):
"Instead of a grand entrance at the front of the building that leads straight into the sanctuary, entry into First Unitarian is by way of a doorway at the side of the building that requires a right turn past other spaces to reach the sanctuary. The sanctuary is entered beneath the low ceiling of the cantilevered choir loft, creating a sequence from shadow into light.
""Civilization is measured by the shape of your ceiling," said Kahn. The complex ceiling of the sanctuary rises above both floors of surrounding rooms and extends over the sanctuary wall to the outer walls of the corridor outside. Light towers in the four corners of the sanctuary bring in indirect natural light from areas that are not typically well lit. The ceiling's layered outer edges and light-filled corners give the room "an expansive, boundless character", according to Kahn biographer Robert McCarter. Kahn said, "If you think about it, you realize that you don't say the same thing in a small room as you do in a large room."
"Between the light towers is a cruciform concrete roof structure with a shape something like the underside of a ship's hull. Its outer edges do not sit directly on the sanctuary walls but rise above them, relieving what could be a perception of oppressive weightiness, according to Carter Wiseman, one of Kahn's biographers.
"The massive ceiling structure is partly supported by twelve slender columns embedded in the sanctuary walls, three columns per wall. Square brackets on top of the central column in each wall support the lower folds of the slab. The brackets are split in the middle to allow the fold to be perceived as passing through to the outer corridor walls, which provide much of the ceiling support. Each central column is braced to the columns on either side by horizontal beams. The ceiling is lowest and darkest in the center, the opposite of classic church domes that are highest and brightest in the center. The cruciform shape that Kahn used for the ceiling is one that he had used in previous works, notably the Jewish Community Center of Trenton, New Jersey.
"The tapestries on the sanctuary walls were designed by Kahn and, like the building itself, contain no literal symbolism. They were woven by Jack Lenor Larsen. At Kahn's request, the panels span the full color spectrum and yet were constructed entirely from one red, one blue and one yellow yarn, with the remaining shades created with blends of those three yarns. The panels were designed not only for visual effect but also to correct a problem of sound reverberating from the concrete walls. (
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