One of the first works prominently featured in the Frank Lloyd Wright issues of Wendingen is the Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois. Built for the Unitarian church centered there, with which the Wright family was an integral part, the Unity Temple is one of Wright’s seminal works. It was one of the first public buildings in America to be built entirely of concrete, which, until then, had been used as an industrial material. The choice of material was both practical and symbolic. Constrained by the limited budget available to him, concrete offered a cheap and time-saving solution. The building was also, as Wright said, “the ‘concrete’ expression of concrete” (McCarter, Unity Temple, 18). Wright’s architectural goal of uniting material, design, and all other decorative and structural aspects of a building are exemplified by the Unity Temple. He had taken an industrial material and molded it to a spiritual purpose.

1. Wendingen vol. 7 no. 9, 1926, Frank Lloyd Wright, Special Issue 7.
2. Wendingen vol. 2 no. 11, 1919, Reinforced Concrete.
3. Wendingen vol. 7 no. 3, 1925, Frank Lloyd Wright, Special Issue 1.
4. “The New Edifice of the Unity Church, Oak Park, Illinois,” Dr. Rodney G. Johonnot, Pastor. June, 1906.