Unity Temple Restoration Foundation

I had my wedding ceremony here on Sunday, May 27, 2012. It was Memorial Day weekend. I have never recalled a Memorial Day weekend in Chicago with bad weather… until now. On my wedding day, the temps reached a sweltering 97 degrees. This in itself is uncomfortable, but when you throw in no air conditioning… yikes.
But it could have been much worse. Fans kept the temps bearable. Sure, it wasn’t exactly cool, but considering how hot it was outside, the inside wasn’t too bad. I took a star off for no a/​c, but other than that, my experience with The Unity Temple was stellar. I worked with Meridian from the beginning, and she was very accommodating with us. At first I didn’t think I could afford to have my wedding there. But I emailed her, asking if they could slash the price. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask, right? The worst they could do is say no. To my shock, they were willing to go very close to the fee I asked for. Since it was already late into the season, and the chances of filling that day at the regular price was low, Meridian was willing to give us a discount. So I was able to have the ceremony at a beautiful and unique church. All my guests loved the intimacy of the space. We didn’t even need a sound system.
We had 100 guests, but I think you could fit about 200 in there. The interior is beautiful, and the design speaks for itself. You don’t need to decorate much.

Since I had a coupon from Groupon for the Unity Temple, I decided to take the hike out to Oak Park.
It is defiantly a day trip. I took the Green Line train to Oak Park. From the train, you can walk to the Unity Temple, just follow the street signs to the Unity Temple.
In the lobby, you will be given a pamphlet and a brief history about the temple. From there, you have the opportunity to take your time to walk around the temple. You certainly can tell, this masterpiece is from Frank Lloyd Wright.
Granted, the temple is going under renovations, I would highly recommend taking a tour of this building.

Although the drab grey concrete exterior of Unity Temple’s architecture looks austere and foreboding, its interior is quite dazzling and shouldn’t be missed.
I decided to tour this building since I was already in Oak Park for the Frank Lloyd Wright house-​studio and neighborhood tour (which any architecture enthusiasts should also take). The staff at the Wright house told me that Unity Temple had their own self-​guided tour thing going on and that it took 15 minutes to look around. After I did the Wright houses tour, I walked over to Unity.
Although the attendant at Unity also said the self-​guided tour took about 15 minutes, I spent more time than that since there was so much to take in. In addition to the Wright house and Oak Park houses tour, I had recently visited Wright’s Taliesin and Robie house; those other tours required the tourists to stay in the group, not touch anything (furniture, walls, etc.), and did not permit photos of the interiors. However, at Unity, the staff person gave me a very detailed brochure about Unity and said I could freely «walk around, sit, and touch.»
Unity consists of 3 «rooms»: a lobby, a 2-​story community room, and a compact but compelling 3-​story sanctuary. It’s in the sanctuary that shows not only Wright’s exquisite sense of aesthetics, but also his superlative command of space, geometry, and light. The congregation is seated along 3 sides of the sanctuary on 4 levels; wandering around and sitting at various areas, you find that each seating area gives a different feel: the awkward basement level feels like a cozy cavern, the middle level seems like a shore on a lilly pond, and the upper level’s perspective is similar to viewing from a mountain.
There were a few other tourists checking out the seating views from other areas as well — clearly, they were taking more than 15 minutes! Some of us took turns going up to the preacher’s pulpit to see what it was like up there; although congregants would be sitting on various areas in 3-​D space, the preacher could still see them all from the pulpit!
With all the pictures of Wright’s Unity Temple I’ve seen in many books, the experience of being there can not be imagined — you just got to be there to walk and sit in the space, see the dazzling tree canopy-​like skylight, view the different perspectives, and contemplate all the intricacies that made Wright’s architecture famous. The community room is also quite impressive.
The brochure stated that although the Unity congregation didn’t have a lot of money to begin with when they commissioned Wright for the Temple, they wanted something as grand as the other ornate churches in the neighborhood. I think Wright was able to deliver a grand (compact) design on a limited budget. Even the Wright houses that I had seen doesn’t allow you to go through and view 3-​D space like Unity Temple.
I guess I spent 45 minutes going around the building, freely taking photos of the interior (another perk they give you). Although I spontaneously added Unity Temple to my itinerary on my visit to Oak Park, this «15 minute self-​guided tour» was worth it. By the way, if the Unity staff sees you wearing the headphones while you are on the Wright neighborhood tour, they’ll knock off $ 3 from the $ 9 admission to Unity.

I am so impressed with Frank Lloyd Wright and his architecture vision in the early 1900s. This temple is so modern looking and I had to keep reminding myself that its over 100 years old! Lots of rooms to view here and the area where service is conducted is very spacious. We enjoyed walking around and exploring the different parts of the building. There are three sections of the building and you can see a small model version of it close to the entrance. Parts of the ceiling were falling apart, so I hope the admission fee will be put to good use for repairs! $ 9 per person and its a self guided tour.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple is a great space in general and didn’t disappoint when I came here last night for an author reading/​signing.
The Book Table of Oak Park and The Unity Temple Restoration Foundation sponsored an author reading entitled, «Chris Ware & Charles Burns, In Conversation.»
The setup was intimate so no matter where you sat you could still hear and see pretty much everything. Another nice thing about having an author reading here is that a portion of the proceeds from book sales goes back to The Unity Temple Restoration Foundation, so that they can maintain this beautiful structure.
To me it’s a win win situation. You get enjoyment from the presentation of the authors. You get your book signed and you do some good by preserving a lovely historic site.
I will be back and I can’t wait for the next bookie event here.

Had the chance to take the train our to Oak Park during a visit to Chicago to see some FLW work in this area — his home/​studio, some of the houses and Unity Temple.
Very much enjoyed the visit — great piece of ground breaking architecture for it’s time (and still pretty revolutionary vs. what is created today, particularly in suburbs).
Visit was great — got to walk around and see what I wanted (operating church, day school, etc…) and the architecture that created the place for worship and learning. Great detailing, interesting technology for its time, great interiors and just wonderful environment. As is common with FLW, the design was ahead of the available technology and fabrication of its time, so it is showing its age — distressed concrete and the like. Hopefully, restoration will bring this landmark back to its original glory. It has got to be expensive and technically challenging to maintain, improve and restore these type of unique and craftsman oriented buildings.

The UTRF recently hosted an event around Valentine’s Day. It was called Wine, Chocolate & Architecture and featured sweet treats and delicious drinks from Oak Park’s local Marion Street Cheese Market and Kathy Reller Designs’ unique jewelry. I loved how intimate the setting was and didn’t feel overwhelmed by what could have easily been turned into a pretentious, stuffy fundraising event.
Tickets were $ 28 in advance and included a small tour of the Unity Temp, which I believe lasted at least an hour. Afterward, they let us roam freely and take pictures. The tour guides made sure to stick around to answer any questions and presented us with tickets for two free tours in the future. It was well worth the price and went to a good cause.
I think the Temple itself is amazing, but will be even better after more restoration projects. I can’t wait to see the finished result and I am so proud of everything the Foundation is doing to see that this landmark is preserved.

Remarkable architecture. I found the tour interesting as I enjoyed learning about Frank Lloyd Wright’s thinking behind the architecture. A showplace.

Based on some other reviews I am glad we decided on the self guided tour. We did stumble upon the guided tour and the man talking seemed a little boring. I still need to go back and read the pamphlet they gave us — this is why I usually opt for the guided tour.
I love frank LLoyd Wright buildings and looking at beautiful architecture but I think the admission charge is a bit of a rip off. It is $ 8.00 and $ 6.00 for students under 22. Really? Why dont they value and appreciate the old person in college like me? I had to tell them it was my birthday the next day (which it was) just to get a discount at the student rate. And then they hesitated and had to think hard about throwing me a bone. So back to why it was a rip off. The main point of interest is the temple. After that there isnt anything else too spectacular too look at.
I do understand, however, that the money collected goes towards restoration and preservation of this wonderful building and for that I dont mind terrible paying the price… but of course I stil have to complain.
So back to the temple, Its a very simple design that I couldnt help staring at and wanting to view from every angle. There are views from above and below the temple so you can really get a good feel of what FLW was trying to create. And, bonus! they allow photography.

The temple was really nice. I dont know about doing the tour though. It was just mainly the person talking for a better part of an hour in the main room. I felt like I was in lecture class all over again. There are some interesting points they bring up but unless your an architecture buff you feel like you’re ready to fall asleep. I would say skip the talk and walk around yourself

Frank Lloyd Wright designed only three house of worship and this is one (the others are a Greek Orthodox church near Milwaukee and a synagogue in Pittsburgh). The building’s interior is a beautiful example of Wrights use of horizontal lines and his view of religion (he parents were Unitarians). Its somewhat less interesting exterior is an example of what a lousy engineer he was — it is constantly in need of repair! Be sure to tour this when seeing the Wright Home and Studio.

Unity Temple is another great work of architecture in Oak Park by Frank Lloyd Wright. This concrete building is interesting from the outside, but its interior spaces are superb. The familiar Wright touches can be seen in the detailing of doors and windows. I was fortunate to participate in my friend’s wedding here in 1999, a wonderful experience in a wonderful building.