Community Christian Church | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) |
Year consecrated | 1942 |
Status | active |
Location | |
Location | 4601 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64112 |
Geographic coordinates | 39°02′35″N94°35′11″W / 39.043161°N 94.586465°W |
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.
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]
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
Edward Buehler Delk (1885–1956) was a prominent architect who designed many landmark buildings in the Midwest and Southwest regions of the 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.
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