The First Unitarian Society Meeting House in Madison, WI was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and completed in 1951. This was Wright’s own church which he referred to as “little church in the country.”
In 1964, the Unitarian Meeting House was named one of Wright’s seventeen most important contributions to American culture by the American Institute of Architecture.
The building had structural issues throughout its history, making repairs necessary every few years. In 2018, PE was commissioned for structural rehabilitation of the roof structure. Ahraaz Qureishi, PE, Structural Engineer for PE, and the team, which included Findorff, created a holistic, long-term solution for the roof.
A replacement cold-formed truss was built on-site in the attic and installed without disrupting regular services in the space. As part of this solution, PE used and installed strain gauges to ensure accurate and proper force load to the newly installed truss. University of Wisconsin-Madison structures lab supplied the instrumentation for the project.
This article in STRUCTURE Magazine, written by Ahraaz, details our process in more depth.