The First Unitarian Church of Rochester
The First Unitarian Church of Rochester
"What does an arch want to be?" This was a question asked by Louis I. Kahn (1902-1974), an influential, modernist architect and contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright. Kahn, a practitioner and teacher was faced with what form buildings should take given the relatively few constraints that governed building envelopes and interior space. He believed building environments should only facilitate the activities inside. While this may seem common sense today, at the time, architecture was undergoing a radical transformation. New construction methods and emergent ideas of building design had structures taking on new whimsical forms, which didn't relate to their purposes.
One of his creations, the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York exemplifies these principles. The plan is dominated by the main worship space, which features a massive concrete cross hanging effortlessly in space, with each corner pinned by a clerestory opening, allowing natural light to fill the space and define the form. The additional support spaces are organized around the worship space, forming a community of rooms suitable for teaching, community and collaboration.
Kahn was guided by a pragmatic and materially stark philosophy. He thought buildings should be organized by their structural systems, then suffused in light. Regarding the construction process, he said "...the artist instinctively keeps the marks which reveal how a thing is done..." Due to this, remnants of the construction process, such as imprints from concrete form work, were left behind as an artistic visual record of construction.
As Kahn stated, "Architecture, the end result of design is just that, a harmony of spaces in light." This jewel in the City of Rochester is worth visiting if you are a designer, architect or construction person in the city.
Thank you so much to Kimberly Joy and support staff of the First Unitarian Church of Rochester to allow me access to their facility to document such a beautiful space and share in this piece of history.
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