University Unitarian Church is located on the southeast corner of 35th Avenue NE and NE 68th Street. It sits cross from an earlier Modernist building, the Northeast Branch of the Seattle Public Library, which was beautifully designed by the “father of Northwest Modernism,” Paul Thiry, in 1945.

Two views of the church building by the docomomo WEWA (Documentation and Conservation of the Modern Movement, Western Washington) organization illustrate their general definition of Modernism. Taken on what appears to be a frosty day, the façade stretches into the clear sky with its repeating rectangles. Seen without the current vegetation, the north end exit is suspended off the ground and floats a vertical support for the large clerestory windows.

“God is in the details.” - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Approaching the church, we encounter Kirk’s design details, such as the concrete bridge suspended between the street level and the entrance doors. The bridge is an intentional strategy to create a physical transition from the workaday world to one of spirit and meditation. When we cross that bridge on Sunday morning, we make a journey to another place, separate from the city in which it sits.

Rectilinear forms are repeated throughout the building, in windows and floor plan. Originally, the exterior screen was planted with what looks to be bamboo. This was intended as an additional screen for privacy and a transition to the outdoors. The metal sculpture affixed to the screen is by Norman Warsinske (1929 - 2007).

Throughout the building, rooms afford little glances into the landscape. These interior gardens and courtyards are characteristic of Kirk’s interest in site integration.

“Even now many call it weird, until they go inside. It is beautiful!” - Esther McDowell (writing in 1966)

The interior photograph shows UUC in pristine original condition. Missing are the organ and the storage cabinets under the then smaller loft. The shape of the building is certainly church-like. But where a traditional aesthetic might locate the apex of a central nave in the center of the aisle, Kirk intersects two vaulted shapes – the peak of one half of a traditional church at the far eastern wall, and another higher one over the center aisle. On the western walls, the roof beams transfer their weight to shorter vertical supports in a traditional church construction of evenly spaced bays, bays that in other churches might be pierced by windows or open to side aisles or chapels. The massive, bolted beams are strong, dark supports emphasizing the engineered construction of the church with materials that are natural, industrial, and familiar. They fly overhead with an organic swale, holding up a wall of glass to let in as much Seattle light as possible.

The chairs – oh, those chairs! Modernism created many chairs whose forms are still marketed today for “minimalist” homes and offices. Linked molded seats are extremely practical – they stack and can be rolled outdoors to allow open space in the church. Like pews, the seating is connected, but with separate chairs, individuals have their own places. In this early picture, we see how they create a repeating pattern of their own, and their arrangement suggests lightness. They look perfect in these old photographs.

Image from University of Washington, Special Collections, DMA0542, DM2615.