In 1949 the president of Phoenix’s Southwest Christian Seminary commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a Classical University. In 1950, Wright’s completed drawings revealed his vision for an 80-acre campus, replete with a chapel, administrative buildings, seminar rooms, library, Greek theatre and faculty homes. However, the seminary ceased operation before the campus could be built.

In the early 1970s, the First Christian Church approached Wright’s widow, Olgivanna, who granted them permission to use Wright’s triangular chapel design. Meant to evoke the Holy Trinity and reflect an attitude of prayer, the chapel’s roof and spire rise seventy-seven feet, supported by the 23 slender triangular pillars. Light filters through the spire’s stained-glass insets onto the floor of the 1,000-seat diamond-shaped sanctuary. The addition of the baptistery and choir loft and the administrative wing, completed by Taliesin Architects, are the only modifications to the original design.

These days, Sunday services take place at 9 and 10:45 a.m.