Is your Thursday night going to be sonically spectacular? Ours will be! Third Coast Percussion will perform at Unity Temple THIS THURSDAY, at 7:30 pm. Follow the link to buy your tickets: https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=4c6faa
Break::The::Box 2010 :: Season Kick-off!
Anthony Alofsin :: Frank Lloyd Wright: A Golden Anniversary
Thursday :: February 18 :: 7:30pm :: $15/20
One of the world's leading experts on Wright, Dr. Alofsin will look critically at the architect's reputation since his death in 1959, and will offer an overview of the fate of Wright's persona from neglect to international stardom and sensational celebrity. How golden is the golden anniversary of Wright's death? Is Wright now a victim of his own success? What does the future hold for the posterity of his ideas, work and legacy?
A dessert reception and conversation will follow in Unity House. For tickets at information visit UTRF's website or call 708-383-8873.
Wine, Chocolate & Architecture at Frank Lloyd Wright's Modern Masterpiece
Reserve Now for Thursday, February 11, 7-9 pm
Wine and chocolate have always been a well-matched pair. Add the romance of candlelit Unity Temple -- Frank Lloyd Wright's timeless masterpiece -- for the perfect romantic trio for Valentine's Day. On February 11th, Unity Temple Restoration Foundation, Marion Street Cheese Market and Kathy Reller Designs will bring you a unique experience. Profits will benefit the restoration of Unity Temple, Oak Park's gem.
Gather around the hearth. Sip, savor and enrich the senses...
Gather around Unity Temple's famous hearth to sip a selection of wines from France, Argentina, Chile, and Washington State, specially chosen by Oak Park's Marion Street Cheese Market. Savor artisan chocolates, made by local chocolatiers and MSCM's own pastry chefs. MSCM will be on hand to help you get the most from this delicious experience. Space is limited, so make you reservations today. $28 per person in advance, $35 at the door. 50% of each ticket in tax-deductible. Call 708-383-8873 to reserve or purchase tickets here. To learn more about the Marion Street Cheese Market, visit their website.
Jewelry artist Kathy Reller will join us to show off her sparkling collection of handmade earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.
Kathy
works with both 14k gold and sterling silver, and is known for her love
of color-saturated gemstones and delicate wire work. With prices
from $20 to $250, these pieces make perfect gifts for friends, loved
ones -- or for yourself. As a special Valentine's Day gift from Kathy,
receive a free pair of earrings with purchases of $50 or more. A portion of each purchase will support the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple.
To see more of Kathy Reller's work, visit her Esty site.
To purchase tickets to Wine, Chocolate & Architecture at Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple, click here.The Shore Thing
The installation of the scaffolding and shoring of Unity Temple's south roof slab is complete. Even though the staff was accidentally trapped downstairs by a rogue crossbar, it was a very interesting process to watch. It is also a significant milestone. Now that the roof is supported, demolition of select segments can begin.
The entrance hall is now a thicket of shoring posts. They have been "shrouded" in white muslin so people won't bump into the posts and hurt themselves, but here's a look at the bare bones. If you look carefully, you can see how Safway used steel I-beams to bridge the loads over the old heating tunnels.
On Thursday morning, I climbed up onto the roof (thank you, Alex, Mark, and C.P.) to see the shoring up close and get a look at the temporary roof that Zera was building. From below, you can get a sense of the strength of the shoring and the imposing load it supports:
Here's an even better view, from the first roof level, above the entrance hall and the minister's office:
Up on the south slab, Henry and his crew from Zera Construction were busy building the temporary roof structure that will keep the weather out when the roof is demolished. It stretches from the parapet wall (on the right in the photo) about 10'-8" to wear the roof cantilevers beyond the columns (on the left). (All the cantilevered eaves were restored in 2001, with the $1,000,000 from the State of Illinois. They are in excellent condition and are not part of this project.)
While C.P. and the Safway engineer reviewed the scaffolding and shoring, Zera continued to remove plaster from the underside of the roof slab. They also submitted two concrete mix designs to C.P. for approval.
Speaking of concrete, in the beginning of the summer C.P. invited us to observe when the first test batch was "whipped up" at CTLGroup's offices and laboratories in Skokie. CTLGroup used the same mixer it's used for decades. It was hard not to draw comparisons to a bakery:
Next: a trip to the glass restorer's studio.
- Emily
A Gala Centennial Celebration for Unity Temple
Photo courtesy of The Pioneer Press.
It was a stunning evening.
On the evening of Saturday, September 26, 2009, Unity Temple Restoration Foundation presented the Unity Temple Centennial Gala, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright's modern masterpiece, Unity Temple. The Centennial Gala was successful in all ways--the musical performance was amazing, the food was delicious, the Prosecco flowed, the decor was fabulous, the silent auction offered lots of interesting treats, and our guests had a great time. Most importantly, generous gifts from supporters will fund a portion of the work to repair the critically damaged roof.
The Chicago Chamber Musicians. Photo courtesy of The Pioneer Press.
Thank you for your support.
UTRF was so pleased to welcome new supporters, drawn to the gala through our collaboration with The Chicago Chamber Musicians and the premiere of Peter Lieberson's new work, "The Coming of Light," and by the urgent need to support the restoration of this architectural treasure. It was a pleasure for UTRF to work with CCM and their executive director, Amy Iwano, and their very supportive Board of Directors. And it was a great honor for UTRF's board and staff to meet and spend time with Peter Lieberson and his wife, Rinchen.
Composer Peter Lieberson and his wife Rinchen.
Our fabulous sponsor Room & Board created four seating areas in the Entrance Hall and Unity House with gorgeous furniture from their collection. We overheard one longtime UTRF-supporter say of the installations, "This was how Frank Lloyd Wright would have wanted it..." We were thrilled to partner with Room & Board. Thanks to Karen Wickett, Barb Bohnert, David Staten and the rest of the staff!
Room & Board's installation in Unity House, lit by Noah Record.
Noah Record and friends at Protolight provided beautiful lighting for the evening, both inside and out. As you can see above, the lighting in Unity House made it seem as if there was a mural above the hearth...and made us all feel that that was what Wright really intended for the space. Tulipia donated gorgeous floral displays, and guests nibbled on hors d'oeuvres from Cucina Paradiso, Hemmingway's Bistro, Klay Oven, Maya del Sol, Rent-a-Chef, and Winberie's. We were grateful to House Red for helping us with the wine for the evening, and hugely appreciative of the Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust's donation of Prosecco -- it was wonderful!
Unity Temple in shades of purple and green.
The evening would not have been possible without Sidney K. Robinson, our Centennial Gala Benefactor, whose very generous donation made possible the commissioning of "The Coming of Light," and Ellen E. Griffith and John H. Frye. We are particularly grateful to our sponsors, who have demonstrated their support for UTRF's mission time and again: Prairie Design Group, Architectural Consulting Engineers, John Toomey Gallery, Harboe Architects, CTLGroup, ReedSmith LLP, and Evergreene Architectural Arts.
Evergreene Architectural Arts worked with Unity Temple Restoration Foundation
to recreate the original plaster and paint finishes in Unity House.
Special thanks to Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation for their grant to help develop Unity Temple's Centennial Celebration, and to Jerry McManus, Jack and Mary Ellen Lesniak, and the Oak Park Area Convention & Visitors Bureau for their support. As in past years, the young ladies from the Tau Gamma Service Club from the Oak Park River Forest High School were incredibly helpful. And the entire production would have been impossible without the critical support of Gala Committee volunteers Coreen Arnold, Kimberly Brumirski, Jamey McElvain, Mari Miller, Eric O'Malley, and Jan and Ron Scherubel. And thanks to all who donated to the silent auction: S. Lloyd Natof, Maureen and E.B. Smith, Chef Gale Gand, Froebel USA, Jay and Ellie Homan, Prairie Arts, Jessica Roble-Cinelli, Carol deBoth, Susan Himmerfarb, David Jansheski, Sandra Wilcoxon, and so many other dear friends and local businesses. There are far, far too many to thank!
Gala Chair Rolf Achilles.
After the performance but before the crowd sang "Happy Birthday", our Gala Chair Rolf Achilles, who had spent many hours and made an untold number of phone calls to ensure that this gala was a success, gave a toast. We echo it:
Here's to Unity Temple's next 100 years.
-- Emily
Finding Unity Temple's Tunnels
When Frank Lloyd Wright designed Unity Temple, he equipped the building with a forced air heating and ventilating system. A network of underground tunnels was construction to carry air from the basement on the south side of the building to Unity House and Unity Temple. Unfortunately, the system proved to be inaequate and was abandoned long ago. Since then, the tunnels have been used for piping, electrical, and communications cables. (Soon, the tunnels will have new life as an integral part of the new ground source heat pump ("geothermal") system that is proposed for Unity Temple.)
An opening to one of Unity Temple's underground tunnels
Most people don't know that there are tunnels under Unity Temple. They are set into the earth and are under the concrete floor slabs. You can enter the tunnels--and actually crawl through them--at several spots, but they are basically invisible to the naked eye. To make it more of a mystery, the one drawing we have of the tunnels from the time they were built, by Foster & Glidden Co., does not represent their true location.
Foster & Gllidden drawing of Unity Temple's heating system.
As soon as we knew we were going to have to shore up the south roof, we knew that we would need to be really careful not to place the shoring posts on top of the tunnels. The weight of the roof bearing on a tunnel could cause collapse. Yesterday, Zera Construction called in Universal Construction Testing to locate the network of tunnels using ground-penetrating radar.
Mike from Universal Construction Testing uses GPR to locate the tunnels.
They were able to mark out the actual location of the tunnels. The diagonal blue lines show where the tunnels actually are:
Diagonal blue lines mark the location of Unity Temple's underground tunnels.
Safway, Zera Construction's shoring subcontractor, marked the floor with blue x's last week. As you can see, some of those x's fall directly in the path of a tunnel. Stay tuned for the solution.
So Long, Art Glass...It's Only Temporary
Over the last several days, Mike Smoucha and his crew from Botti Studio of Architectural Arts closely examined the ten clerestory art glass windows on the south side of the temple in preparation for removing the windows and transporting them to Evanston for restoration.
Botti Studio loosens the putty where the windows are joined.
The condition of the windows is generally excellent. Up close, you can really appreciate the opalescence of the opaque glass, especially the green pieces. When the sun comes through, the glass is a beautiful mixture of green, yellow, blue and even orange tones, and contrasts with the dark zinc caming. When the glass is cleaned, I'm sure the colors will be stunning.
Once the screws and putty were loosened, the workers were able to remove the windows. These windows have been in place for one hundred years and have rarely been disturbed, so it was amazing to see Mike and his crew just lift them up and move them onto the scaffold platform.
Then they secured them in specially-built wood crates, and lowered them by hoist to the ground below. It was a painstaking process that took most of the morning and all afternoon. As soon as the first window was lifted out, I stepped out onto the scaffolding and caught part of the process on video:
Being up on the scaffolding afforded me a rare up-close look at Unity Temple's cast-in-place concrete columns:
In the afternoon, Zera Construction's testing firm attempted to identify the location of the old underground heating tunnels by using ground penetrating radar:
We are going to be installing structural shoring in the Entrance Hall that will help hold up the roof, and it is really important that it not bear on the tunnels, which could cause a cave-in. Mark Nussbaum of Architectural Consulting Engineers, who has designed the new ground source heat pump (a/k/a "geothermal") HVAC system for Unity Temple and arguably knows the tunnels better than anyone, stopped by the help. In the end, the rig was not strong enough to locate the deeper tunnels. Zera is bringing proper equipment up from Texas and we'll try again next week.
-- Emily
Preparation and Protection
More scaffolding went up...
And workers added a layer of protection to the interior:
Check back next week for more updates. Thank you for your support!
Paul Goldberger Lecture:
Frank Lloyd Wright, Sacred Space, and the Challenge of the Modern
Recorded March 26, 2009
Copyright 2009 P. Goldberger & UTRF
