Southwest Christian Seminary - Part 2

The church's dominating diamond-shaped stair-stepped ridged blue roof, triangular pillars and the use of a construction method that Wright called “desert masonry” combine to make the First Christian Church a rare example of Wright's Organic-Architecture in the Arizona desert. Awarded Wright's red signature tile upon completion, the First Christian Church sits on the corner of Glendale and 7th Avenue. As with the highly stylized flower motif in the Hollyhock House of 1922 and the round motif found at the Johnson Wax Administration Build of 1939, Wright repeated a triangle, and diamond, motif throughout the design for the First Christian Church. The triangle motif was used to represent the Holy Trinity and to encourage worshipers to look to the heavenly realms. The largest section of the building houses the congregation chapel. This section's exterior is dominated by a sprawling diamond-shaped roof, painted blue-green to mimic the appearance of the oxidized copper roof of Wright's original design. This section of the roof is almost tortoise-shell or scale-like with large triangular or saw-tooth clerestory windows along one ridge that increase in size and culminate at an angular spire at the roof's center. These clerestory windows are infused with stained glass, which at midday shine in a variety of blues, reds, and greens. Though still ridged, copper-like and low pitched, the other roof sections over the two-story classrooms and auxiliary space are not nearly as dramatic and help to emphasize the chapel section. The triangle form continues as a decorative motif along the thick fascia of the deep roof overhang.

Below the dominating mass of the roof structure are angled walls made from the large string of smooth curtain windows, flat unadorned concrete and rough stone walls making the body of the structure. The large curtain windows allow natural Arizona sunlight to flood the chapel. between these sets of glass are twenty large triangular columns, these columns start the pattern that moves toward the exterior garden and arbor spaces. The remainder of the structure is a steel frame clad in Wright's own technique called "desert masonry," unique in that the twenty tons large slabs of flat-faced stones were harvested from the 600 acres that surround the Taliesin West complex. These rough walls were created by methodically adding each stone into the makeup of the concrete forms as the concrete was poured. The desert masonry walls are also used to create jutting triangular second story patios, stairways, and the angled bell tower.

Photo Copyrights: Ben Pearson