Unitarian Meeting House

Unitarian Meeting House

Lawrence Technological University

January 30, 2015

Wright, Frank Lloyd

O’Connor, Thomas (photograph)

American

Single Built Works

July, 1965

Wisconsin (state)

Madison (inhabited place)

Modern (styles and periods)

churches (buildings)

View from the north of the Unitarian Meeting House in Madison, Wisconsin designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and completed in 1951. "The distinctive roof rising to a height of nearly forty feet above the central gathering space, or Auditorium, is sheathed in seamed copper and is “composed of origami-like folded copper clad planes.” The projecting ribs run horizontally across the roof rather than vertically, except where they follow the 60-degree angle of the gable over the prow, and serve a decorative rather than functional purpose. The structure supporting the copper roof is unusual in that no two of the twelve longspan, three-hinged arched trusses used for the Auditorium and Hearth Room are of the same size. Constructed of wood 2x4s and 2x6s, the transverse trusses become shorter as they extend upward and beyond the glass prow to form a deep overhang,"--National Register of Historic Places.

stonemasonry

copper (metal)

jpeg

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LTU-TO-248