Community Christian Church (Kansas City, Missouri)

Last updated
Community Christian Church
Community Christian Church KCMO.jpg
Community Christian Church (1940–1942),
next to the Country Club Plaza
Religion
Affiliation Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
Year consecrated 1942
Statusactive
Location
Location4601 Main St.,
Kansas City, MO 64112
USA Missouri location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Shown within Missouri
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Community Christian Church (Kansas City, Missouri) (the United States)
Geographic coordinates 39°02′35″N94°35′11″W / 39.043161°N 94.586465°W / 39.043161; -94.586465
Architecture
Architect(s) Frank Lloyd Wright
Style Usonian
Website
http://www.community-christian.org/

Community Christian Church was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and sits across from the Country Club Plaza's main shopping district on Main Street at East 46th Street in Kansas City, Missouri. [1] It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination, which has a heavy representation in the Kansas City area.

Contents

In April 1940, members of the church congregation contracted Wright and asked him to design a new building to replace their previous church which had been destroyed in a fire. Wright based his design on a parallelogram including some features previously conceived for his last building for Johnson Wax Company, along with one additional unique feature: a spire of light. Due to high building costs, the scale of the church was reduced during construction. The auditorium was cut back from a planned 1,200 seats to 900 seats, many details were eliminated, and the building was sheathed in gunite, a form of lightweight concrete, over Wright's objections. The spire of light also could not be built and illuminated due to technical limitations of the times. However, the church was dedicated on January 4, 1942, and served the congregation well.

In 1994, the Steeple of Light was finally completed as planned by Kansas City artist Dale Eldred. Eldred died in 1993 before it was completed, so his partner and collaborator Roberta Lord finished the project. [2] The components are housed on the church roof inside of a perforated dome on the building's northwestern corner. The spire is created by four 16-inch (41 cm) xenon bulbs ignited by 40,000 volts of electricity, that, in combination with a parabolic reflector, produces 300 million candlepower of illumination (per light, 1.2 billion cp total) in a near-perfect column. [3] The spire can be seen for miles around Kansas City, and reportedly can be spotted 10 miles (16 km) north of the Plaza, depending on conditions. It has been calculated to stop at least 3 miles (4.8 km) above the Earth, about half the maximum height at which jet airplanes fly. The Steeple of Light is lit regularly on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays; [1] has extended hours on holidays; and remains dark on the two days before Easter. Its lighting is one of the features of the annual Plaza lighting ceremony.

Walk-in tours of Community Christian Church are open to the public and free of charge, and guided tours may be scheduled by calling or emailing the church at least two weeks prior to a visit. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Usonia</span> Term for the U.S. coined by Frank Lloyd Wright

Usonia is a word that was used by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to the United States in general, and more specifically to his vision for the landscape of the country, including the planning of cities and the architecture of buildings. Wright proposed the use of the adjective Usonian to describe the particular New World character of the American landscape as distinct and free of previous architectural conventions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kansas City metropolitan area</span> Metropolitan Statistical Area in Missouri and Kansas, United States

The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri and Kansas. With 8,472 square miles (21,940 km2) and a population of more than 2.2 million people, it is the second-largest metropolitan area centered in Missouri and is the largest metropolitan area in Kansas, though Wichita is the largest metropolitan area centered in Kansas. Alongside Kansas City, Missouri, these are the suburbs with populations above 100,000: Overland Park, Kansas; Kansas City, Kansas; Olathe, Kansas; Independence, Missouri; and Lee's Summit, Missouri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Price Tower</span> High-rise building in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, United States

The Price Tower is a nineteen-story, 221-foot-high tower at 510 South Dewey Avenue in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It was built in 1956 to a design by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is the only realized skyscraper by Wright, and is one of only two vertically oriented Wright structures extant; the other is the S.C. Johnson Wax Research Tower in Racine, Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christ Church Cathedral (Montreal)</span> Church in Quebec, Canada

Christ Church Cathedral is an Anglican Gothic Revival cathedral in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal. It is located at 635 Saint Catherine Street West, between Avenue Union and Boulevard Robert-Bourassa. It is situated on top of the Promenades Cathédrale underground shopping mall, and south of Tour KPMG. It was classified as historical monument by the government of Quebec on May 12, 1988. In 1999, it was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Country Club Plaza</span> Shopping mall in Missouri, United States

The Country Club Plaza is a privately owned regional shopping center in the Country Club District of Kansas City, Missouri. Opened in 1923, it was the first planned suburban shopping center and the first regional shopping center to accommodate shoppers arriving by car.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Christian Church</span> Eero Saarinen-designed church in Columbus, Indiana

The North Christian Church is a church in Columbus, Indiana. Founded in 1955, it is part of the Christian Church. The church building of 1964 was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen (1910–1961) and completed in 1964. Saarinen's father Eliel Saarinen had designed the First Christian Church in Columbus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unity Temple</span> Historic site in Oak Park, Illinois

Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Temple is considered to be one of Wright's most important structures dating from the first decade of the twentieth century. Because of its consolidation of aesthetic intent and structure through use of a single material, reinforced concrete, Unity Temple is considered by many architects to be the first modern building in the world. This idea became of central importance to the modern architects who followed Wright, such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and even the post-modernists, such as Frank Gehry. In 2019, along with seven other buildings designed by Wright in the 20th century, Unity Temple was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beth Sholom Congregation (Elkins Park, Pennsylvania)</span> Modernist Conservative synagogue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , United States

Beth Sholom Congregation is a Conservative Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 8231 Old York Road in Elkins Park, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the only synagogue designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Completed in 1959, it has been called a "startling, translucent, modernist evocation of an ancient temple, transposed to a Philadelphia suburb by Frank Lloyd Wright". The synagogue building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2007 for its architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Unitarian Society of Madison</span> Historic church in Wisconsin, United States

The First Unitarian Society of Madison (FUS) is a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Shorewood Hills, Wisconsin. Its meeting house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built by Marshall Erdman in 1949–1951, and has been designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark for its architecture. With over 1,000 members, it is one of the ten largest Unitarian Universalist congregations in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marin County Civic Center</span> United States historic place

The Marin County Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is located in San Rafael, California, the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. Groundbreaking for the Civic Center Administration Building took place in 1960, after Wright's death and under the watch of Wright's protégé, Aaron Green; it was completed in 1962. The Hall of Justice was begun in 1966 and completed in 1969. Veterans Memorial Auditorium opened in 1971, and the Exhibit Hall opened in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rookery Building</span> Building in Chicago

The Rookery Building is a historic office building located at 209 South LaSalle Street in the Chicago Loop. Completed by architects Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root of Burnham and Root in 1888, it is considered one of their masterpiece buildings, and was once the location of their offices. The building is 181 feet (55 m) in height, twelve stories tall, and is considered the oldest standing high-rise in Chicago. It has a unique construction style featuring exterior load-bearing walls and an interior steel frame, providing a transition between accepted and new building techniques. The lobby was remodeled in 1905 by Frank Lloyd Wright. From 1989 to 1992, the lobby was restored to Wright's design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of Kansas City</span>

The architecture of Kansas City encompasses the metropolitan area, anchored by Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO). Major buildings by some of the world's most distinguished architects and firms include McKim, Mead and White; Jarvis Hunt; Wight and Wight; Graham, Anderson, Probst and White; Hoit, Price & Barnes; Frank Lloyd Wright; the Office of Mies van der Rohe; Barry Byrne; Edward Larrabee Barnes; Harry Weese; and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kraus House</span> Historic house in Missouri, United States

The Kraus House, also known as the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park, is a house in Kirkwood, Missouri designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The brick and cypress house was designed and constructed for Russell and Ruth Goetz Kraus, and the initial design was conceived in 1950. Construction continued until at least 1960 and was never formally completed. The owners lived in the house for about 40 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Buehler Delk</span> American architect

Edward Buehler Delk (1885–1956) was a prominent architect who designed many landmark buildings in the Midwest and Southwest regions of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Whaler's Church (Sag Harbor)</span> Historic church in New York, United States

First Presbyterian Church in Sag Harbor, New York, also known as Old Whaler's Church, is a historic and architecturally notable Presbyterian church built in 1844 in the Egyptian Revival style. The church is Sag Harbor's "most distinguished landmark." The facade has been described as "the most important (surviving) example of Egyptian revival style in the United States," and "the best example of the Egyptian Revival style in the U.S. today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dale Eldred</span> American sculptor (1933–1993)

Dale Eldred was an internationally acclaimed sculptor renowned for large-scale sculptures that emphasized both natural and generated light.

Pilgrim Congregational Church in Redding, California was designed in 1958 by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1960 and 1963.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church (Racine, Wisconsin)</span> Historic church in Wisconsin, United States

St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church in Racine, Wisconsin. It is noted for its historic parish church built in 1925 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 for its architectural significance.

The Danforth Chapel Program was funded by the Danforth Foundation, an organization created in 1927 by William H. Danforth, founder of the Ralston Purina Company, and his wife. The Danforth Foundation focused on national education philanthropy: providing scholarships to college students, supporting projects to revitalize the city of St. Louis, and funding the Danforth Chapels. The Danforth Foundation closed in 2011 with a gift of $70M to the Donald Danforth Plant Center, a research center that focuses on solving world hunger.

References

  1. 1 2 Cole, Suzanne P.; Engle, Tim; Winkler, Eric (April 23, 2012). "50 things every Kansas Citian should know". The Kansas City Star . Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  2. Julie Denesha (2016-12-23). "With 'The Steeple of Light,' A Kansas City Artist Left A Legacy By Connecting To The Heavens". KCUR. Retrieved 2020-08-08.
  3. Community Christian Church.org: Facts & Figures - Steeple. Archived 2008-05-17 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Community Christian Church: Tour Information. Archived 2008-05-09 at the Wayback Machine