UPDATE: What’s next for Wayfarers Chapel By Writer and Contributor Emily McGinn
Amid the ongoing land movement on the Peninsula, Wayfarers Chapel closed its doors earlier this year and this summer, the Wayfarers team — in a desperate effort to save the chapel — disassembled the pieces of it to go into storage for future reassembly.
Now, the disassembly process is complete and the pieces are being stored. But what’s next for Wayfarers, and what will reassembly look like?
The Wayfarers team shed some light on what the future could hold for Wayfarers Chapel in a webinar hosted by the Los Angeles Conservancy as part of their “People + Places” series.
Where will the chapel go?
While there was some initial hope that the chapel might return to its original site, land movement has continued to worsen at the location.
“I see the significance and the importance of being on that property,” said Dan Burchett, the executive director of Wayfarers Chapel. “But if you're on that property today, it looks nothing like it did previously. I mean, it looks like a bomb went off. It's horrifying when you really look at the damage that has happened to the property. The future of that property is completely unknown.”
Since the original site is out of the question, the team will be searching for a new site. Burchett is working with the City of Rancho Palos Verdes and the chapel’s board of directors. Right now, Burchett said the board of directors is considering several potential sites on the Peninsula, though they are too early in the process to release further details at this time.
“Moving away from our property is one of the big challenges,” Burchett said. “We had two parcels, and a three-and-a-half-acre parcel that our buildings were on, and parking, etc. So finding that much space and looking at the cost for that [will not be easy].”
How will the chapel be reconstructed?
The team will use original drawings and photographs, as well as 3D models and laser scans, to assist in recreating the new location, said Katie Horak, a principal at Architectural Resources Group. The process of disassembly was thoroughly documented.
The team also has detailed records from when Wayfarers Chapel first applied for a National Historic Landmark (NHL) designation in 2015, a title that the chapel officially received just last year. The rigorous application process required a historic structure report, which now offers key information about the building and its construction.
The reconstructed chapel will need to meet certain requirements to stay in alignment with NHL standards. As a result, the historic vision of the chapel will need to be a priority in reconstruction.
When will it be reconstructed?
As of now, there is no timeline for the chapel’s reconstruction. However, Burchett predicts that it will be a long, slow process, especially amid uncertainty regarding land movement in surrounding areas.
“The deconstruction process has basically taken up all the oxygen in the room the last several weeks but all along, we've been looking at the long game,” Burchett said. “We've been concerned about what our future is. We don't want to leave the Rancho Palos Verdes Peninsula. This is our home. And increasingly, with the land movement affecting larger and larger areas, we are concerned about making sure that when we rebuild this, it's on solid ground and there's not going to be an issue a few years down the road with a similar situation due to landslides.”
It will also take time to find the ideal location for the chapel. Since Wayfarers is designated as a NHL, the new spot will need to have more than just enough land — it will also need to recreate certain conditions that existed on the initial site to align with the original vision of the chapel.
“Historic buildings are moved all the time,” Horak said. “It's often a last resort. There is National Park Service guidance on how to move historic buildings, and there's a lot of emphasis in recreating the environment in the new location. So the receiver site should have very similar qualities to the original site.”
The new site will need to have the same climate and provide the same experience as the original location to align with Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr.’s design. The team will need to consider landscaping and other environmental details at potential sites.
“Getting the same quality of light, the same breezes that come through — that will really help to recreate not just the building itself, but the experience of being there, which is so incredibly special,” Horak said. “So we designed the deconstruction methodology in a way that the building could be reconstructed and still be an NHL.”
The hefty cost of the reconstruction also looms as an obstacle for Wayfarers. The reconstruction cost is currently pinned at $20 million, though Burchett said this is just a “guesstimate.” He expects that the cost will be higher depending on the cost of land and expenses incurred during the fundraising process.
As of now, the chapel team is conserving funds and setting its sights on finding a property. The team does not plan to begin the fundraising process until it secures a site, which will allow them to better gauge the expected cost of reconstruction.
Though the situation is challenging and the path forward is murky, Burchett and the team are hopeful for the future.
“It's going to require the efforts of anybody and everybody who decides to be a part of this project, including fundraising and getting through the arduous process of [finding] the property location and then [completing] the reconstruction,” Burchett said. “It's going to be a long time, and I'm afraid there aren't a whole lot of answers that I have. [But] we're committed. We're going to do it, and I don't know how long it's going to take, but we are committed.”
Community members can donate to Wayfarers Chapel on its website. Those interested in helping should also stay tuned for potential volunteer opportunities down the road.
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