Seventeenth Church
Seventeenth Church
Mapa
Descripción
Designed by renowned architect Harry Weese and completed in 1968, Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist is a striking example of late Modernist and Brutalist architecture in downtown Chicago. Its raw, sculpted concrete exterior rejects traditional religious imagery in favor of clean, geometric forms, allowing the building to blend seamlessly into its secular, urban surroundings on Wacker Drive. Inside, the design functions much like a civic amphitheater, featuring a semicircular auditorium with concentric, tiered seating focused entirely on a central speaker's platform and a massive, prominent pipe organ. To combat the noise and distractions of the bustling Loop outside, Weese brilliantly utilized a colossal circular skylight and a sunken garden to flood the sanctuary with soft, ethereal natural light from above, creating a highly functional, acoustically pristine, and deeply contemplative space for the congregation.





