After the original church burned down in 1905, the board of trustees selected a site on Lake Street and hired Wright to design a new building, Unity Temple.

Unlike contemporary churches, Unity Temple was designed without a spire; instead, the roof consists of multiple flat, overhanging concrete slabs.

Unity Temple has received extensive architectural commentary over the years, and it has been the subject of many media works, including books and museum exhibits.

Unity Temple is designated as a National Historic Landmark and is part of The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, a World Heritage Site.

[9][10] Inside was a ground-level parish hall with an auditorium above it;[9][11] a Chicago Tribune article from 1872 described the church as having a stone foundation and wood frame.

[24] The original Unity Church was destroyed on June 4, 1905, when a lightning strike started a blaze;[25][26] firefighters were unable to extinguish the flames because of low water pressure.

[36] On August 30, the planning committee met with nine architects, selecting four finalists: Frank Lloyd Wright, Dwight H. Perkins, William Augustus Otis, and Normand Smith Patton.

[83] Paul Mueller, who had previously built Wright's E-Z Polish Factory and Larkin Administration Building,[84] was ultimately selected as the contractor.

[103] Church officials decided not to use red granite due to the expense involved;[102] instead, they agreed to apply an acidic solution to roughen the facade.

[123][XVII] Congregants pledged $5,771 for the building's completion at their annual meeting the same month,[127][XVIII] which allowed the trustees to finally reimburse Mueller.

[128] The temple's mechanical contractor Foster & Glidden were completing the building's electrical systems by August,[129] and the pews were under construction by that September.

[160] Oak Leaves reported that the building was depicted in a wide range of architectural publications and that it attracted visitors from around the world,[168] though local residents largely ignored it.

[61] Rice left the building largely intact during his tenure, converting Unity House's two balconies to classrooms and adding a chapel for children.

[173] By the 1960s, the concrete had begun to spall and leak; the congregation ruled out the idea of using stucco to patch the facade, and there were discussions about potentially demolishing the temple.

[184] The restoration also received funds from the congregation itself, the National Park Service, four anonymous donors, and Alden B. Dow, in addition to tour revenue and insurance payments.

[180][186] A local firm, Sturr-Young Associates, was hired to repaint the auditorium in its original colors, restore the skylights, and redecorate the interior, while Frank's son Lloyd Wright was retained as a consultant.

[310][331][332] The north wall of the foyer is decorated with wooden slats and was initially designed as a hidden exit from the auditorium, without any doorknobs or visible hinges.

[172] The church hosted a program called "Ways of Mankind" during 1954, in which members of the public were invited to listen to, and discuss, radio broadcasts about selected topics.

[381] Unity Temple's design has been credited with having helped inspire the European architects Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Peter Behrens.

[382] In addition, Unity Temple has inspired the design of structures such as the Maisonneuve Fire Station in Montreal,[383] the Emerson Unitarian Church in Houston,[384] and the Kunstmuseum Den Haag building in The Hague.

[385] The emphasis of materials and light in Unity Temple's design helped inspire later buildings such as Notre-Dame du Haut and the First Unitarian Church of Rochester.

[369] Conversely, Winthrop Kendall regarded the building as unattractive, "without a vine or a tree to relieve its massive monotony",[388] and disappointed congregants likened the temple to a Mayan handball court.

[389] In 1928, a writer for The Baltimore Sun described Unity Temple as one of a few buildings that expressed Wright's "idea of the thing—made to sing to heaven",[390] while the Wausau Daily Herald said the design "gave rise to the cubical monolith".

[393] The architectural critic Paul Goldberger perceived Unity Temple as representing "a kind of symbolic gathering and communal presence, monumental dignity in a public place",[394] calling it one of "the greatest religious structures" of the 20th century.

[395] A writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education in 1996 contrasted Unity Temple's "blocky" massing with the low-roofed design of Robie House on Chicago's South Side.

[352] David M. Sokol, in his 2008 book The Noble Room, wrote that the temple's "majesty and importance" was partially derived from the fact that it was not arranged as typical church buildings had been.

[284] Blair Kamin wrote for The Wall Street Journal in 2025 that the temple's exterior was "monolithic, not monotonous" because of its use of textured concrete and geometric motifs, while "the sanctuary is as serene as architecture gets".

In 1959, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) deemed Unity Temple as one of 17 buildings designed by Wright that merited the highest levels of architectural preservation.

[415][416] Unity Temple was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in April 1970;[417] such a designation allowed properties to receive federal funds for restoration.

[426] UNESCO added eight properties, including Unity Temple, to the World Heritage List in July 2019 under the title "The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright".