Low-down and rough around the edges aren’t usually meant as compliments, and they’re not usually applied to a church. But George Percy’s down-to-earth 1888 design for a cathedral in rough-hewn stone was considered appropriate by the progressive Universalists, whose current church committees include a pagan interest group and gay marriage advocacy. The 1970–74 annex built by Callister Payne & Rosse is a modernist eye-catcher that’s conceptually consistent with the older structure: a low, concrete-slab building that makes no secret of its construction. The design for the annex owes an obvious debt to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, as well as local Japanese influences appropriate to its location at the edge of Japantown.
