Art: Teacup Dome

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright has been dead for two years, but monuments to his originality are still going up. Now another of his last major buildings—the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation*at Wauwatosa (outside Milwaukee)—is all but finished, and sightseers as well as worshipers are crowding to see it.

To help him design his first and only Byzantine church, Wright got advice from his Greek Orthodox wife and pondered such examples as Istanbul’s Santa Sophia, with its 107-ft.-diameter dome set high on pendentives. But he decided that “it is never necessary to cling slavishly to tradition.” He used an equilateral Greek cross as a ground plan, with three arms containing seats and the fourth the altar. Over this, rather than the usual square design, he superimposed a circle to form the outer wall; surmounting the wall came a dome 106 ft. in diameter. The stained-glass windows, still to be donated, will be fitted in just beneath the dome, to filter sunlight. Thanks to sunken gardens adjoining the church, more sunlight streams into the lower level. Since Wright’s concrete is painted egg-yellow, it is sometimes hard to tell where sun begins and building ends. The dome is gold inside, royal blue outside.

Like God. Greek Orthodox church authorities wondered whether tradition did not demand greater fidelity to existing Byzantine structures. Even Pastor Emmanuel N. Vergis was at first hesitant. His main problem was how to communicate with Wright: “How do you speak to a divinity? I mean, I do that when I pray, but what about on earth? That’s the way I felt about him.” Wright did not help matters with his opinion of Milwaukee itself: “It’s hardly worth blowing up.”

Once he had learned to distinguish between Wright and God, Pastor Vergis found the architect reassuring and even reverent. “Mr. Wright used to say, ‘We’ll all be right here, in the palm of His hand,’ ” recalled the pastor, cupping his hands as Wright had. In the concrete and steel teacup church that followed the pattern of his cupped hands. Wright ringed the rim with a wide balcony to bring more worshipers closer to the altar.

Like an Oyster. The church cost $1,250.000 (Wright’s fee: $137,500). As with another latter-day Wright design, Manhattan’s Guggenheim Museum, criticisms are harsh. To some observers it suggests a stadium, to others a brooding oyster or a flying saucer. “I can’t decide whether it looks like it just got here or like it’s just about to leave,” muttered one viewer. Another critic grumbles that it is “too small for a bullfight, too large for a cockfight.”

“It is warm and serene,” said Father Vergis, and many fellow citizens are sure it will make Milwaukee famous.

*Wright designed at least four other sectarian churches in recent years: the Unitarian Meeting House at Madison, Wis., a Congregational church at Redding, Calif., Beth Sholom Synagogue at Elkins Park, Pa., and a Christian Science church for Bolinas, Calif.