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  Hilltop Lutheran Church of the Ascension was designed by Charles Edward Stade.  Stade was one of the second-generation Modernists, bringing contemporary design to the masses, making good, serviceable buildings that were affordable, handsome, clean and elegant – ideal for the suburban frontier.
  
  Stade was a consumate Modernst. He designed simple, elegant, geometric buildings, largely bereft of ornament, that relied on the magic of light and space to bring them to life. Also in keeping with the Modernist ethos, he was not at all ashamed to recycle ideas for building designs, to the extent that many of his smaller churches are totally interchangeable.
  
  And yet, none of them are clones. Each is uniquely designed. Each contains an original floor plan, each has unique glass patterns, each has custom-designed liturgical furnishings.  Stade loved his angles. Some of the most interesting details in his designs are where angles repeat and pile on one another. It’s not hard to spot a Stade church: It’s a style that was heavily influenced by the angular styles of Frank Lloyd Wright, particularly his Unitarian Meetinghouse in Madison, WI.
  
  Stade is most famous for his magnificent chapel at Valpairaso University, south of Chicago. Stade designed, reportedly, hundreds of churches, across Chicago and America, from the early 1950s until his retirement in 1981. He worked with many denominations, but his own Lutheran faith gave him the largest number of commissions.