First Rochester Unitarian Church and School

Louis Kahn – Rochester Unitarian Church, Rochester, NY, 1959

The First Unitarian Church and School is located at 220 Winton Road South in Rochester, New York and was commissioned in 1959 by the Congregation of the First Unitarian Church from architect Louis I. Kahn.
Most of Louis I. Kahn's projects have a spiritual character, devoid of program and function. In this work, the architect conceives a massive central volume, intended for the faithful and religious functions. Around this central structure with a symmetrical plan, Kahn develops the service functions, with an asymmetrical entrance, and a series of accessory spaces with classrooms for students, offices and bathrooms, separated from the central body by a continuous perimeter ambulatory, and hidden by walls erected with concrete blocks. The building is emblematic of Louis Kahn's creative process, for whom it is not the form that follows the function, as the Modern Movement said, but rather it is the function that gradually emerges while the structure and the form are conceived.