First Unitarian Church of Rochester (building)

The First Unitarian Church of Rochester is a building that was designed by Louis Kahn and completed in 1962. It is located at 220 Winton Road South in Rochester, New York, U.S. The congregation it houses is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

For the religious congregation associated with this building, see First Unitarian Church of Rochester.
First Unitarian Church of Rochester
North facade
Location in New York
Location220 S. Winton Road., Rochester, New York
Coordinates43°08′28″N 77°33′26″W
Area8 acres
Built1962, 1969
ArchitectLouis I. Kahn
Architectural styleModern
NRHP reference No.14000537[1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 2, 2014

The building was described in 1982 as one of "the most significant works of religious architecture of this century" by Paul Goldberger, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning architectural critic.[2] 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.

The story of the design process that Kahn followed at First Unitarian has been described as "almost classic in architectural history and theory".[3] 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."[4]:66

See also

References
  1. National Park Service. "Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 9/15/14 through 9/19/14". National Register of Historic Places Program: Lists of Weekly Actions 2014. National Park Service. Retrieved Sep 26, 2014.
  2. Paul Goldberger (December 26, 1982). "Housing for the Spirit". The New York Times. Retrieved Nov 1, 2011.
  3. Katrine Lotz (2007). "'Architectural Gaits' – Architectures as Technologies and Techniques". Nordic Design Research. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  4. Kahn, Louis (2003). Twombly, Robert (ed.). Louis Kahn: Essential Texts. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-73113-2.
  5. Nancy J. Salzer (June 1975). "Covenant for Freedom: A History of the First Unitarian Congregational Society of Rochester, New York, 1829-1975" (PDF). First Unitarian Church of Rochester. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 6, 2016. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  6. Jean France. "Louis Kahn's First Unitarian Church". First Unitarian Church of Rochester. Archived from the original on February 17, 2015. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  7. Fehmi Dogan and Craig M. Zimring (March 13, 2006). "Interaction of Programming and Design: The First Unitarian Congregation of Rochester and Louis I. Kahn". Journal of Architectural Education. 56: 47–56. doi:10.1162/104648802321019164.
  8. "Frank Lloyd Wright". Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved Nov 1, 2011.
  9. Goldhagen, Sarah (2001). Louis Kahn's Situated Modernism. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07786-5.
  10. Brownlee, David; David De Long (1991). Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli International Publications. ISBN 978-0-8478-1330-8.
  11. McCarter, Robert (2005). Louis I. Kahn. London: Phaidon Press. ISBN 978-0-7148-4045-1.
  12. Frank Schulman. "Ralph Waldo Emerson". Unitarian Universalist Association. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  13. Wiseman, Carter (2007). Louis I. Kahn: Beyond Time and Style. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-73165-1.
  14. "History of Roosevelt, New Jersey". Rutgers University Library. 2011. Retrieved Nov 1, 2011.
  15. Leslie, Thomas (2005). Louis I. Kahn: Building Art, Building Science. New York: George Braziller, Inc. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-8076-1543-0.
  16. Komendant, August (1975). 18 Years with Architect Louis I. Kahn. Englewood, New Jersey: Aloray. ISBN 978-0-913690-06-2.
  17. Scully, Vincent (2003). Modern Architecture and Other Essays. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-07441-2.
  18. Fleming, Steven (2003). The Bed Maker's Model: A Thematic Study of Louis I. Kahn's 1961 Article "Form and Design" in Terms of Plato's Theory of Forms as Treated in The Republic. Callaghan, NSW, Australia: University of Newcastle. This link is to Chapter 3, "Preliminaries," of Fleming's PhD thesis. The remainder of the thesis is at http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/24826
  19. Fehmi Dogan (November 2002). "The Role of Conceptual Diagrams in the Architectural Design Process: Case Studies". Georgia Institute of Technology. Retrieved February 17, 2015. This PhD dissertation has useful images from the design process, including the Form diagram.
  20. McCarter, Robert (December 2009). "Louis I. Kahn and the Nature of Concrete". Concrete International.
  21. Sonit Bafna (June 2005). "Symbolic construction in non-discursive media: The design development of Kahn's Unitarian Church in Rochester" (PDF). 5th International Space Syntax Symposium. Techne Press. Retrieved Nov 1, 2011.
  22. Daniel Naegele (October 2002). "Uncrating Kahn's Fisher House" (PDF). Conference Proceedings, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Northeast Regional Meeting. McGill University. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 2, 2006. Retrieved Nov 1, 2011.
  23. Jack, Larsen (1998). A Weaver's Memoir. New York: Harry Abrams, Inc. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-8109-3589-1.
  24. "The Process of Design; Lesson 3 of 6" (PDF). Artist's Work/Artist's Voice: Louis I. Kahn. Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved Nov 1, 2011.
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