May 4, 2000

Unity Temple hopes $1 million 
state grant `just the beginning'

By ERIC LINDEN

"We'd like to think this is the end, but it is really just the
beginning," Pat Segel of Oak Park said Tuesday night, talking about the
$1 million in state funds that will be going toward the "stabilization"
of the national landmark in Oak Park.

Segel is president of the board of the Unity Temple Restoration
Foundation (UTRF), the volunteer group that exists to restore and
preserve the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed national landmark building at
875 Lake St.  With the $1 million grant, UTRF became one of the latest
organizations to benefit from the $13 billion Illinois FIRST
construction program that was pushed and is promoted by embattled Gov.
George Ryan.

While the $1 million is to pay, beginning this summer, for immediate
"stabilization" of physical conditions at Unity Temple, the landmark
needs much more for the long term. UTRF representatives said the $1
million in the new state budget was secured from Ryan and the state
legislature chiefly through the efforts of State Rep. Angelo "Skip"
Saviano (R-Elmwood Park), whose district includes River Forest and part
of northwest Oak Park.

As presented at Tuesday's annual meeting of the UTRF board, the landmark
building needs between $4 million and $5 million more for restoration in
the long term. UTRF said it hoped to to complete the long-term
restoration in time for the centennial of Unity Temple's construction in
2008.

Segel called the $1 million state grant "the crowing glory of our year"
at UTRF. Her 1999-2000 highlights also included an extensive and
first-time study of Unity Temple's physical conditions by Skokie-based
Construction Technology Laboratories (CTL). That study was funded by a
$32,500 grant from Oak Park village government, which paid for half of
the study, and CTL, which donated its work to cover the other half of
the study.

Tom Rewerts, a CTL vice president, described his firm as "construction
problem-solvers." He said CTL studied the concrete portions of Unity
Temple and discovered several "concerns" with the future of the national
landmark. Found lacking and in need of repairs now, Rewerts said, were
the concrete walls, roof slabs, parapet walls that hide the rooftop
skylights, ornamental flower beds, the chimney on the Unity House
building to the south of Unity Temple and the concrete paving outside
the main foyer of Unity Temple.

The study by CTL also found that Unity Temple's shotcrete, roof
overhangs and exterior walls are in good condition, but that other
problems need to be addressed. CTL found that a master plan for Unity
Temple restoration that was developed in 1994 "is still a valid
document," UTRF said in this year's annual report. The master plan
regularly is updated, most recently by UTRF's Architectural Committee.

The rooftop slabs and the fascia are "the two biggest problems facing
Unity Temple," Rewerts said. Such problems with the concrete last
December led to between 150 and 200 pounds of concrete falling from the
landmark's roof. No one was hurt in that incident, and future incidents
are not expected to occur, but were not to be entirely ruled out as
possible, prompting the need to undertake the stabilization efforts.

That "initial stabilization stage," UTRF said in an announcement, will
tackle the concrete concerns and also "will address critical building
systems, such as heating and ventilation and the 14-section roof" of
Unity Temple. The state grant received this year essentially will pay
for that "stabilization stage."

After that, UTRF will undertake a "restoration stage" on several fronts.
Included there will be upgrades to exterior lighting, restoration of
plaster and art glass windows, replacement of a temporary accessibility
ramp with a permanent ramp for access by disabled residents, repainting
of Unity House in its original colors and replacement of the Unity
Temple skylights.

Capital fund-raising will begin soon, Segel said, to be able to afford
the $4 million-plus for the "restoration stage." That money-raising
effort received a boost, she said, when the National Trust for Historic
Preservation recognized the work needed at Unity Temple as up to
historic standards. The trust's action can be used in fund-raising
pitches, Segel said, and those efforts will be "more aggressive," said
Joyce Monroe, UTRF treasurer.

Since it was founded 27 years ago, UTRF has raised "nearly $800,000" on
various restoration projects, the foundation announced. It is hoped that
the National Trust's action will boost fund-raising, as will Unity
Temple recently being named this year as one of the 10 most endangered
historic buildings by the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois.

"Although the scope of work needs to be augmented and the funding
resources (need to be) discovered to carry out the restoration, a
workable plan is in place to guide the complete restoration of Unity
Temple by its 100th anniversary," UTRF's annual report said.

But the future fund-raising efforts are to come. Tuesday's annual
meeting of UTRF was dominated by much celebration about the $1 million
state grant. Officials chiefly credited State Rep. Saviano for securing
the Illinois FIRST money, with support from the six other legislators
who represent various parts of Oak Park.

On board in support of the major grant were Saviano and three other
Republicans, State Rep. James Durkin and State Sens. Dan Cronin and Tom
Walsh, and three Democrats, State Reps. Wanda Sharp and Calvin Giles and
State Sen. Kimberly Lightford. Segel encouraged UTRF members to write
letters expressing thanks to those legislators.

Also receiving credit for working to secure the state grant was David
King, a Forest Park resident who runs the Oak Park commercial real
estate firm David King & Associates. UTRF board member Bill Crozier
called King, a veteran political operative, "a great friend of Unity
Temple," termed Saviano "the spark plug" in gaining the state grant and
noted a contribution on working for the funding from John Eckenroad, the
president of the Oak Park Development Corporation.

The Ryan administration and state lawmakers have been doling out
Illinois FIRST money since the program was funded with a series of fee
hikes last year. Among those receiving the funding previously were the
Oak Park District 97 elementary schools, which got $17 million to fund
some of the costs of the two new middle schools going up in Oak Park,
and the Elmwood Park public library district to help fund a new library.
Moreover, officials from the Oak Park Public Library are seeking $10
million to lessen the property taxes to be collected for a new $30
million main library.

The Unity Temple Restoration Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation
that operates independently from the Unitarian Universalist congregation
that built, that still owns and that holds services in the Unity Temple
building. The building, according to the foundation, is still used for
its original purposes: as a meeting house for the congregation, for
musical events, for public meetings, for educational programs and other
events. UTRF said it remains dedicated to having those uses continue.

"Unity Temple is a building that was meant to be used, not just
admired," said UTRF spokesman Greg Thomas. The foundation also works to
increase public awareness of Unity Temple's architectural significance,
which is recognized worldwide.

Since its founding, UTRF has undertaken restoration projects ranging
from a sprayed concrete resurfacing in 1973 to the ongoing restoration
of the building's cube light scones. Affairs of the foundation are run
by a volunteer board and a paid staff of five employees, including a
director of tourism. Lisa Dodge will be leaving in June from that
position and is to be replaced by an executive director, a position now
being recruited.