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Exterior Photographs

This is an excellent Wright building to visit if you are touring Madison, Wisconsin. The tour is well done, and the access to the building is excellent. There are many Wright originals in the building including furniture and other artifacts. There are three pages of photographs at this website including this page of exterior photos, a page of interior photos and a page with photos of the auditorium. There is an official website for the First Unitarian Society.

The construction site was more secluded when the building was conceived, but it is now surrounded by development and looks out on to a hospital. When it was constructed, there was a veteran's hospital being constructed, but it appears much closer so I think it is a newer hospital. Actually, "looks out" is not exactly accurate. You can see from the auditorium interior that you can't actually see out of the "prow" of the building — my father and I both thought this was strange and somewhat disappointing. I suppose that the glass prow serves to provide the light source for indirect lighting in the auditorium.

As with most Wright buildings, the entry way (below) is understated.

It's not an optical illusion — the roof of the building is bending down.
I doubt this was planned, but it's not uncommon with Wright buildings.
We didn't hear anything about the roof leaking on the tour,
but that would not be too surprising either....
My father is six feet tall so you can see that a certain amount of
"compression" of space was intended here.

This is the window off the "living room" that is used for social gatherings.
It is located at the back of the building.

Here is some of the detail on the outside of the glass prow.
You can see the reinforcing blocks used to hold the glass in place.
You can also see the mitered glass with no visible seam —
another common feature in Wright buildings.

This education center was added later by Taliesin Architects.