I had seen it a few times before, but this time it really hit be how outlandish the building is. Surrender Dorothy, indeed. Or it could have been built by Zoroastrians or some other odd non-western religion. Or if the People's Temple people had actually built a temple, it would look like that.

How can people see that building and still not think Romney is in a cult?

I once drove by in on the way to San Diego with a business colleague who had never seen it before.

His unsolicited comment: "That looks like Disneyland!"

Still in an office park?

I wouldn't consider it on office park. It is right next to one of U.S.'s most major freeways. It is in the high rent district. There is a nice group of condos and some nice shopping close by.

I use to think it was pretty. Maybe that is because of how outlandish it is. Mormonism is outlandish and they want to stick out. There are many more nicer places in San Diego that wouldn't have been any more expensive. They had to put it 20 feet from the freeway and 12 stories high. (including the embankment and steeple) On top of that they had to make it stand out highly from all other San Diego buildings.

You can google satellite map it, and see the surrounding area. The best on-site view is probably from the La Jolla Village Square Shopping Center parking lot (on the other side of the freeway).

Lots of apartments filled with UCSD students in the area.

It definitely jumps out at you while driving on the freeway... "a wtf was that" moment.

I remember as a kid people always talked about how the San Diego temple was the prettiest temple. I just saw it a couple years ago for the first time, not too long after we left the church and I thought it just looked weird.

But at least it isn't some concrete prefab ala Brigham City...

Not knowing what it looked like, I searched for an image. I wish I hadn't! 0.o

I have a degree in art history and criticism. I see clear a relationship between the aesthetic sensibilities that allow Mormons to call that thing "the prettiest" and the manner of dress and home decor practiced by TBM SILS.

I'm just sayin'.

For all they spent on the temple and its grounds, tho, they make their missionaries/visitor guides sit on a pair of camp chairs under an umbrella out in the parking lot with a 'Temporary Visitor Center' banner flapping in the wind. :P And what the heck is with the star thingy on the driveway right where the missionaries are anyhow?

Edited to add foto ( http://flic.kr/p/dkoH43 )



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2012 10:24PM by smorg.

Is it more outlandish than the D.C. temple ?

The DC temple was the church architects' first exploration of a stylized, "celestialized" interpretation of the SLC temple. Stretch it, make it pointier, make it white... The SD temple takes that idea but says, hey, what if we minimized the walls and made it all spires?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2012 10:59PM by Stray Mutt.

The way it looks outside http://flic.kr/p/dkpaVn

Of course, there's a sort of guide tour of what the inside apparently looks like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSCu-zD8HeQ (warning, this video has a very high intelligence-insulting index).

Oh my. I lack words for that video.

The people I know here in DC refer to the temple (especially when lit up at night) as "emerald city"

I've seen that temple -- it's impossible not to see it. The one word that comes to mind is "obnoxious".

It represents Mormonism perfectly: shallow and tacky.

Most of the newer Mormon temple designs are too obsessed with the color white. They are getting to the point where some of them look like they are made of the same material as plastic lawn chairs. What they really need in their designs is a splash of color in order to provide contrast.

My family was friends with the architect, Bill Lewis. He was our bishop years ago. Bro Lewis was a TRUE TBM...he fasted once a week. According to the lore of the design, the eight-pointed stars were called "The star of Melkezideck"(sp). I have heard Bill Lewis in talks and he really felt that he was truly inspired to create that design. When the temple was first announced the church wanted to make it the crappy design like the Dallas temple and Bro Lewis became involved and changed it up completely.

The only problem was the morg corp got in the way. Lewis wanted marble walls and the church would only pay for stucco. he wanted much more for the temple than it became in the end.

My father, a general contractor, tried to bid on the temple project but some construction company from Utah got the bid by totally underbidding everyone else out of the competition. Looking back, it makes me wonder what the connection was between church building construction and money flowing into the LDS corp.

It seemed that the church was going to hire this company no matter what and the whole playing field was skewed to make that happen. My father had no idea how someone could build the temple for that cheap without going broke.

To me the San Diego temple represents a rift between the True, true TBM's and the church corp. It stands at the freeway emblazoned as a bright and shining lie.

Similar things happen in construction all the time. If a GC has ample experience with one particular organization, they can underbid local, more inexperienced contractors. I was involved in one project Cali where the winning contractor was from Connecticut, another where the job was in Florida and the contractor was from Montana.

I'm not saying that there wasn't something hinky between the Church and your father's winning competitor, but...

And I imagine there were plenty of "unexpected" overages in the budget once they got started. I'm sure it was just a sweetheart deal from the beginning. All other bidders never stood a chance.

I just looked at it on Google. What is with the balconies on the block of stone by the Freeway?! Who would want to stand there??

Yes, since it's next to the freeway, it can get noisy. And that big shopping center is across the street. But the La Jolla area itself, with its hills and eucalyptus trees, is worth viewing.

I've been over in the UCSD library, and got the view of the temple from there. It is REALLY out of place from a business/architectural perspective.

(One of my children lives within walking distance of the temple, La Jolla Village Square, and UTC Westfield.)

Are Temples now practicing transubstantiation?

I went to school at UCSD and lived in University City for several years (and then in North County) and I used to drive by that Temple all the time. In fact a couple of my friends went on the tour when they were showing people through before it was consecrated. I've never been inside but honestly, growing up in Southern California, it's no more outlandish than anything else.

The freeway it overlooks has been widened since it (the Temple) was built. I was curious about that, because those freeways need widening all the time and I wonder how long it will be before you can reach out and touch Moroni from the overpass.