Wayfarers Chapel to rebuild at new location in Rancho Palos Verdes
The Brief
Wayfarers Chapel plans to be built at a new location just one mile west.
The new location will sit on the Battery Barnes military site.
The chapel closed in February 2024 due to accelerated land movement.
LOS ANGELES - LA's iconic Wayfarers Chapel, located in Rancho Palos Verdes, might be rebuilt at a completely new location.
The backstory
The chapel closed in February 2024 due to 'accelerated land movement.' Large cracks were present on the foundation throughout the chapel, making it unstable. The74-year-old chapel wascompletely disassembled by July 2024.
What we know
As they look forward to rebuilding, organizers said the existing location is no longer ideal. According to Wayfarers Chapel's website, they plan to rebuild the new chapel only one mile west of the current location. The new location will sit on the Battery Barnes military site.
On their website, they released four artistic renderings that show the chapel on the new Battery Barnes site, on the Alta Vicente hilltop above Point Vicente Lighthouse and the Golden Cove shopping center.
What they're saying
"With the original Chapel carefully disassembled and stored, we are now ready to rebuild the Chapel as soon as we can secure the prospective new site and raise rebuilding funds. Following the closure of the chapel in February 2024 and with disassembly completed in July 2024, we have determined that rebuilding on the previous (heritage) site is not possible for the future of Wayfarers Chapel. The new proposed location sits adjacent to Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall on the Battery Barnes military site," their website read.
It's unclear when construction will start or when the new chapel will reopen.
The Instagramable glass chapel is a popular wedding venue in LA. The 100-seat, glass chapel opened in 1951 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2023. The famed Mid-century Modern structure with glass walls was designed by Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Source
Information for this story came from the Wayfarers Chapel website.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
Dana-Thomas House Foundation donates $50k for historic Springfield site restoration
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — Nearly $50,000 is headed to the Illinois Conservation Foundation for the restoration of a national historic landmark in Springfield. On Wednesday, it was announced that the Dana-Thomas House Foundation donated $48,874 to the Illinois Conservation Foundation to facilitate the purchase and installation of historically appropriate rugs at the Dana-Thomas House. Urbana City Council approves method to pay millions for previous agreement with Hotel Royer 'The Dana-Thomas House is not only an architectural masterpiece but also a vital piece of our state's cultural heritage,' said Natalie Phelps Finnie, director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. 'Preserving historic sites like this ensures future generations can learn from and experience Illinois' rich history.' The Dana-Thomas House is one of the most complete early examples of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie-style architecture. Wright designed the house in 1902 for socialite and philanthropist Susan Lawrence Dana. Additionally, the home contains over 100 pieces of original Wright-designed furniture and more than 250 examples of art glass. Monticello students build bike racks for park named after fallen Marine The Illinois Conservation Foundation will administer the donation to ensure it directly supports the carpet restoration project at the Dana-Thomas House. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources operates this house, as well as 55 other state historic states across the state. 'We are proud to work alongside the Dana-Thomas House Foundation on this effort,' said Jenny Vaughn, executive director of the Illinois Conservation Foundation. 'Public-private partnerships like this play a critical role in ensuring that Illinois' historic sites and state parks are protected and maintained for the future.' This historic site is open to the public for tours year-round. To learn more about the Illinois Conservation Foundation, or to support preservation efforts, visit Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
This national landmark had to move because of a landslide. Inside what's next for Wayfarers chapel
A year ago, one of the Los Angeles region's most beloved buildings was busy being dismantled, stone by stone, beam by beam. The Wayfarers Chapel, also informally known as the 'tree chapel' or 'glass church,' had since 1951 stood serenely on a lightly forested bluff in Rancho Palos Verdes, overlooking the waters of Abalone Cove. Designed for the nature-loving Swedenborgian Church by Lloyd Wright, the talented son of Frank Lloyd Wright, the building seemed to disappear into the redwood grove that surrounded it, thanks to its glass walls and ceiling, craggy Palos Verdes stone walls and laminated timber frame, which formed circles and squares symbolizing, among other things, the primal elements, the oneness of God and the unity of all life. No wonder it was the chosen site for 800 weddings a year. But the eerily shifting lands of the Portuguese Bend landslide — which also prompted the 2024 evacuation and loss of dozens of homes in the area — presented an existential threat to the chapel, and last May the church made the painful decision to take down what had just months before been named a national historic landmark, put its parts in storage and try to find a new home. 'We had no idea if we'd be rebuilding in one year or five,' said Katie Horak, a principal at the Los Angeles office of Architectural Resources Group, or ARG, which, with Gardena-based K.C. Restoration, led the dismantling. 'We just knew we had to save what we could.' Now a new site has been identified, although not yet secured. Over the weekend, Wayfarers Chapel's website began showcasing renderings, produced by ARG and landscape architects Agency Artifact. They showed the chapel, perched on an ocean-hugging hilltop a little more than a mile from its original location. The 4.9-acre parcel, which also houses a World War II-era bunker, is a former military installation called Battery Barnes, owned by the U.S. Coast Guard. It's a few hundred feet southwest of Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall. Rancho Palos Verdes City Manager Ara Mihranian confirmed that the city, which owns most of the land encircling the potential chapel site, was strongly supportive of Wayfarers moving to the proposed location. 'Wayfarers is one of our iconic symbols. It's been here longer than the city was incorporated. It's part of our landscape, our cultural DNA,' he said. Mihranian confirmed that the Coast Guard had begun the process of divesting the land to the city, which would then lease or sell it to the church. (Mihranian said the city would prefer to lease the land, but the church has said it would prefer to buy it, or swap it for its previous site.) The divestiture process could take a year or two, maybe more, said Mihranian, who noted that the chapel and the city recently submitted a letter to U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu, whose 36th District includes the site, to help expedite the process. 'It's not a done deal yet,' added Robert Carr, Wayfarers Chapel's administrative director. 'But we're closer than we've ever been. There's goodwill all around. We just have to make it happen.' Carr added that the site, abutting the Alta Vicente nature preserve, would be an ideal fit for the church. Geological surveys show no shifting land underneath, and in many ways it's similar to the original location. 'It's a high hilltop with a steep slope that has views a quarter mile away of the cliffs and the points and the bays,' Carr said. Horak added that it also works well from a preservation standpoint: 'It's close to the original location, shares the same coastal breeze, orientation and microclimate. That's critical for the sensitive materials we salvaged. The light, the view, even the way the wind moves across the hill — it's as if it was meant to be.' Carr said rebuilding would likely take place in stages, starting with the chapel, followed by a new bell tower, meeting hall (lost to a landslide in the 1980s), stone colonnade and facilities like a café and museum, which could be installed inside the site's former bunker, Carr said. The city and chapel have discussed a community hall that could be used for city events during the week and wedding receptions on the weekend. Fundraising, Carr said, has just started, but the chapel hopes to raise around $10 million by summer 2026 for the chapel. The group eventually wants to raise about $30 million for the entire project. Both figures, he said, could change as a design emerges. ARG and Agency Artifact created schematic designs for the chapel in its new location; the project's final design team has not been chosen. Putting the chapel back together in a way that preserves its integrity, Horak said, will be no easy task, no matter who works on it. Her team was able to save many of the building's component parts, like the wood building frame, steel window frames, stone walls and many of the roof tiles. It was also able to take a digital scan of the original building. But the glass will have to be new, as will the bell tower, which couldn't be saved (although its bells were). The chapel will need new seismic strengthening, and trees and landscaping will need to be planted along its periphery. But compared to what Horak described as the 'adrenaline-fueled' disassembly, which couldn't employ cranes or scaffolding due to the shifting earth, the process will be less stressful. 'At least we can use heavy equipment,' she said with a laugh. A museum at the new site could showcase, among many other things, Lloyd Wright's work on the chapel, Carr said. That would be a triumph for the architect, who designed important buildings in Los Angeles but never gained the recognition many think he deserved. One case in point: His astounding, X-shaped Moore House in nearby Palos Verdes Estates was unceremoniously demolished by its owners in 2012. 'Very few people can actually point to his work,' said Adrian Scott Fine, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Conservancy. As for the chapel's design, he said: 'There's nothing else like it. This is a place that people would go to almost like a pilgrimage.' Rev. James Lawrence, president of the Swedenborgian Church of North America, added that the crystalline Wayfarers had become the church's most prominent symbol. Several cities around the country, he said, had offered to house the reconstruction. 'We had a national cathedral in Washington, but Wayfarers became the national cathedral psychologically. There's something aesthetic and symbolic and powerful about the chapel that has made it such a well-known place around the planet.'
Business Journals
a day ago
- Business Journals
Ted Williams
Architects & Engineering | Career Update Ted Williams, McKim & Creed After serving as President of Landmark Science & Engineering (Newark, Del.), Ted Williams transitioned to a key leadership role as Vice President and Regional Manager at McKim & Creed, following the firm's acquisition in May 2025. In this new role, Ted will oversee McKim & Creed's Mid-Atlantic growth. Ted's expertise includes 48 years of experience performing comprehensive civil engineering design and project management for various land development, transportation, and construction projects.
