The Wright track

Unity Temple

Solid cement walls might seem commonplace now, but fresh off the heels of the Victorian era, Unity Temple in Oak Park was criticized for going against the stone, neo-Gothic architectural standard of the time. Today the Frank Lloyd Wright church is considered a landmark—the country’s first noncommercial building to use reinforced concrete—but that hasn’t stopped it from falling into decay.

Over the last 35 years, the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation has worked toward preserving the 1908 building, which was erected before the construction method had been perfected and now needs about $15 million worth of restoration work. Six yearly chamber music concerts help raise money, but Emily Roth, executive director of the foundation, has launched a lecture series to raise more funds and public awareness: break :: the :: box 2008 brings in visionaries whose innovative concepts match the temple’s nonconformity.

Now finishing its second year, break :: the :: box holds events inside Unity Temple. Among the nine lecturers featured this year were Jeanne Gang, an architectural firm head who has been rethinking the skyscraper with her forthcoming Aqua tower; and Sarah Susanka, an architect and best-selling author famous for her “Not So Big” philosophy of building better, not bigger, homes.

It was Wright’s willingness to be radical that spawned the idea for break :: the :: box 2008, Roth says. “With this series, we focus on what’s going on now in art and architecture, so we look at two things: Wright’s life and work and also what’s happening now that relates.”

One installment of the series, “When Tradition Gets Radical,” hosted by Timothy Wittman, is a prime example of this. Wittman, a professor at the School of the Art Institute, spent much of the April 18 event comparing Wright’s famous works to those of today’s working architects who use a traditional vocabulary of architecture, only with entirely new techniques.

With these more contemporary topics, says Roth, “We’ve been attracting people who’ve supported us over the years, but we’ve been getting a lot of young people who wouldn’t normally come here.”

While the point of break :: the :: box 2008 is to draw more people to experience Unity Temple, the next installment actually takes place off-site, on the green roof of Chicago’s city hall. “The green-roof tour could have easily been sold three times,” Roth says. “There’s such a wonderful thriving architecture scene in Chicago.” The tour will be led by someone from the Department of Environment. Roth says she hopes to get some of the people who come to the Loop event interested in touring Unity Temple and thinking outside the box.

break :: the :: box 2008 hits the roof on Thursday 29.