OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Overview

The commission for this remarkable, Puget Sound Modern church went to two Unitarians, Paul Hayden Kirk and Victor Steinbrueck, who were also good friends with each other. They collaborated with David McKinley in Kirk's office on the design during 1955.

Building History

The church cost $250,000 to erect in 1958 and was designed by Paul Hayden Kirk, FAIA, and Associates, Architects. Collaborators on this project included: John H. Stevenson, Structural Engineer; Stern and Towne, Mechanical Engineers; Thomas E. Sparling, Electrical Engineer; William G. Teufel, Landscape Architect, with whom Kirk often worked as this time; A.W. Robertson, General Contractor. Plaques covering exterior windows were executed by sculptor Norman Warsinske. It was formally dedicated on 04/12/1959.

In a 1987 interview with UW Department of Architecture graduate student Anne L. Lindsay, David McKinley, a key employee of Paul Hayden Kirk, recalled the design process of Univerity Unitarian Church #2. Linday and McKinley discussed the role that architect Victor Steinbrueck had in designing portions of the church. During the 1950s, at least, Steinbrueck, a tenure-track Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington, would work during the summers in various architectural firms around Seattle to keep his skills sharp and to earn a little extra money. He worked with the firm of Paul Hayden Kirk in the summer of 1955 while the firm had the Univerity Unitarian Church #2 job. Lindsay quoted McKinley: "Summers. {Steinbrueck] would workd for various architects, since he and Paul were classmates. He worked for us two summers...I worked a lot on that Unitarian Church. Vic did the Fellowship Hall...I worked on the Chapel and the cross beam in the big clerestory, the entry, and Vic worked quite a bit on that Fellowship Hall. He was a Unitarian as well as Paul. That's how they got that job. Just a nice marriage. Two Unitarians and they're both architects who were both classmates. But he did the fellowship side and the classroom wing and I was fairly heavily involved with Paul on the Chapel." (See Anne L. Lindsay, The Evolution of the Faculty Club on the University of Washington Campus 1909 through Present, M.A. Thesis, University of Washington, Department of Architecture, [Seattle: University of Washington, 1987], p. 97.)

Building Notes

The University Unitarian Church won a design award in the 10th annual competition sponsored by the Washington State Chapter of the American Institute of Architect on 12/08/1960. (See "Architects Cite Nine Winning Buildings," Seattle Times, 12/09/1960, p. 5.)

Tel: 206.525.8400 (2006).

PCAD id: 6064