Unity Temple was Frank Lloyd Wright’s first public building: a landmark, and one that attracts thousands to the intersection of Lake and Kenilworth in Oak Park. The boxy structure is renowned for its fine acoustics and wretchedly uncomfortable pews.
To make matters worse, at about that same time word got out about a $20,000 study of the temple’s concrete, done by the respected engineering consulting firm of Wiss Janney Elstner Associates. Funded by UTRF, the study raised what Wilcoxon calls “the whole issue about whether chunks of the building might or might not fall off.” The study concluded that it’s a clear and present danger, and that the cantilevered eaves need to be reworked. It suggested taking one off for exploratory surgery, at a cost of $80,000. The church board is skeptical about the study’s findings: they believe that there is most likely no problem. But the Home and Studio Foundation has now bowed out of the tours, fearing possible liability. Meanwhile the church is conducting its own tours, and planning to commission a concrete study of its own.
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“UTRF has a 501(c)3, a specific charter that opens up other sources of funding–it’s used by museums, educational groups, historic preservation organizations. It means they can accept contributions from corporations and other granting foundations that usually cannot give to churches. The people giving that money want to know that it’s going for restoration, not for the church’s operating fund or the minister’s salary. UTRF was established to access those funding sources not open to the church. UTRF’s only job is to focus on the restoration and the needs of the building, making the building accessible.”
Pond disputes Pokorny’s account of the concrete study and supposedly incendiary summary. “It was presented in a very nonsensational way to the church members. They might surmise that if a restoration organization had spent $20,000 to have the report done, it didn’t do it frivolously. The results say as conclusively as possible, without doing exploratory surgery, that one of the eaves should be removed from the temple. I think that if the report hadn’t come in when it did, it wouldn’t have been a problem.”
No one on either side sees that a return to the status quo is possible. But some accommodation will have to be reached.
“I’m real positive about working with the congregation to reestablish ourselves, and reestablish ourselves even more effectively than before,” says Pond, who promises to send negotiators who are forward-looking. “We’re going to put all that negative stuff to rest, and start over with a clean slate.”
