© Mark Hertzberg (2024)

The brilliant blue dome roof of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin shines again. First, let us dismiss the old saw or canard about Wright’s roofs. Yes, many have leaked, but so have the roofs of countless buildings that Frank Lloyd Wright did not design. The church, which Wright designed in 1956, and which was completed in 1961, two years after he died, is in the midst of a major repair project. The roof has been repaired (no, it had not been leaking, but it had been deteriorating) and the front steps and entry way are being rebuilt. The front steps are integral to the foundation of the building.

The roof was originally covered in thousands of blue tiles. The tiles started popping off in the extremes of Wisconsin’s weather. and the roof was covered in a blue polyurethane coating. Today, the only remaining tiles are on the arched canopy above the front doors:

I photographed the roof work in mid-October:

The church on Saturday December 7:

The general contractor for the repair work is CG Schmidt, the roofing contractor was F.J.A. Christensen Roofing Company.

While many people think of the church solely as an architectural landmark, it is, of course, primarily a church. In May 2013 I was given the privilege of photographing Good Friday services there. This is a link to those photos:

https://wrightinracine.net/2013/05/04/good-friday-at-annunciation-greek-orthodox-church/

I had been given free rein to photograph the interior of the church a few weeks earlier:

https://wrightinracine.net/2013/04/12/annunciation-greek-orthodox-church-2/ of the

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church website:

https://www.annunciationwi.org =

John Gurda’s book is the definitive history of the church:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21443265-new-world-odyssey

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