Chapel

Oct. 17 (UPI) — A nine-year, $335 million restoration of the U.S. Air Force Academy Chapel has President Donald Trump calling for a federal investigation into the matter.

The president in a social media post on Thursday called the cadet chapel in Colorado Springs, Colo., a “construction disaster” since it was built in 1962 and said the current renovation is projected to be finished in 2028.

“The earlier stories are that it leaked on day one, and that was the good part,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent,” he explained. “The renovation, which essentially has been going on since the day it was built, is now projected to go on until 2028.”

He said a newly revised budget adds $90 million to the renovation cost, which now is $335 million from its prior $247 million budget.

“This mess should be investigated,” Trump added. “Very unfair to the cadets — a complete architectural catastrophe!”

The Defense Department in August awarded a contract that exceeds $88 million to the JE Dunn Construction Co. to renovate the chapel, which is projected to be finished in November 2028, The Hill reported.

Officials at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center are overseeing the renovation project and said the additional funds will cover additional costs after encountering unexpected problems.

The chapel has been closed since October 2019 as the restoration project began, but the discovery of asbestos and other issues has delayed the renovation and greatly raised its cost from an original estimate of $158 million, according to KOAA-TV.

The current construction cost estimate is nearly half the cost to renovate the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which was completed twice as fast.

The latest nearly $90 million project allocation from the Defense Department boosted the total cost by 36% from $247 million.

The project “ensures the long-term structural integrity and watertightness of the Cadet Chapel and will resolve issues that have plagued the building since its opening 60 years ago,” the AFCEC said.

The facility leaked water from the moment it opened in 1962 and underwent numerous “Band-Aid fixes” over the years, USAFA architect Duane Boyle said during an April 2024 news conference.

The 150-foot-tall, 52,000-square-foot chapel is comprised of 17 triangular spires that give it an aircraft-like appearance.

It was one of the first modernist-style structures built in the United States and is “one of the most seminal pieces of modern architecture in the United States,” Neal Evers, Colorado University-Boulder Environmental Design Department professor, told KOAA-TV.

He said the chapel was designed and built when modernist-style architecture “was really taking off in the ’50s.”

Evers said it’s unfair to compare the project’s cost and time to other restoration projects, but he acknowledged it is a “problem” when the initial five-year timeline is extended to nearly 10.

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.”

(Architectural Resources Group and Agency Artifact)

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.”

(Architectural Resources Group and Agency Artifact)

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.

Rev. David Brown presides over a service at the Wayfarers Chapel in 2022.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A construction worker removes a panel of glass from Wayfarers Chapel as it’s disassembled in May 2024.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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.

(Architectural Resources Group and Agency Artifact)

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.”

The papal conclave has begun as Archbishop Diego Ravelli declared ‘extra omnes’, signaling non-voters to exit the Sistine Chapel. Only 133 cardinal electors remain to vote for the 267th pope after the doors of the chapel are closed.

DICTATOR Vladimir Putin has showed off his private chapel and his favourite drink in a bizarre tour of his Kremlin apartment.

The Russian tyrant gave the public a glimpse into his home in an interview marking the 25th anniversary of his first inauguration as president.

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The bizarre footage shows Putin giving his favourite interviewer, Pavel Zarubin, a tour of the apartment while answering his questions.

When asked about his grandchildren from daughters Maria, 39, and Katerina, 37, Putin says they occasionally visit him unexpectedly in his austere apartment. 

He said: “They can, they can.

“But still everyone understands that I have such an around-the-clock schedule, and they try to give advance notice, [and] ask when I’ll have a little window to see them.”

Zarubin follows up and asks if he is a strict grandfather to which the 72-year-old responds: “No, no!”

Putin did not name his grandchildren but it is known his eldest grandson Roman, 12 – born to his daughter Maria – is half-Dutch, by her first husband Jorrit Faassen, the son of a NATO colonel.

The pair then make a stop in the kitchen where Putin is seen getting a bottle of kefir from his German Liebherr fridge, before offering some to Zarubin.

The dictator claimed he copes in the kitchen alone before admitting: “Well, the guys [adjutants] come, they help.

“But now, what for? We’ll pour the kefir ourselves.”

Kefir is a traditional Russian sour milk associated with gut health, immunity, and longevity – suggesting he is trying to show he’s patriotic and staying fit. 

Putin is later asked about unleashing nuclear war against Ukraine or the West – a question often raised by Russian propagandists. 

Zarubin asks: “When [Ukraine and the West] provoke us, provoke us, provoke us – they even started hitting us with NATO missiles.

“And many people had this desire…to strike back.

“Why such cold-bloodedness these three years? Because everything would have ended in nuclear war in that case?”

Mad Vlad replied: “You said it right – they wanted to provoke us.

“They wanted to make us make mistakes.

“Well, and there was no need to use the weapons you’re talking about – and, I hope, there won’t be.

“We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 [the war against Ukraine] to a logical conclusion with a result that suits Russia.”

The Russian leader also gave a glimpse into his gold-gilded chapel where he claims he fell to his knees to pray after the Nord-Ost siege in 2002.

He said: “Here is [my] little home chapel.”

He continued: “Back then, during the Nord-Ost crisis, I, for the first time in my life, knelt.”

Hundreds of hostages died in the Nord-Ost siege, mainly from gas used by Putin’s pawns, and up to 50 militants were also killed.

Putin also admitted that he often has to restrain himself from a craving to punch people. 

Zarubin asked: “On the outside, you always seem very cold-blooded and reserved — don’t you ever get the urge to, as they say, punch someone?”

Putin replied: “Always….I live with it. But I fight it.”

Finally, Putin revealed that he is always thinking about who to crown as his successor and hinted at a potential leadership contest.

He said: “I always think about that.

“In the end, people can have whatever attitude they want toward this, but ultimately, yes, in the final analysis, the choice belongs to the people – the Russian people, the citizens, the voters.”

He suggested that the outcome could be skewed with “election technologies” and “administrative resources”.

But he said: “The chances of truly achieving something are slim for a person who doesn’t have the trust of the people behind them.

“That’s a fundamental issue.

“So when I think about this – and I think about it all the time – of course I think that a person should emerge, or better yet several people, so the people have a choice.

“Someone who could earn that trust from the citizens of the country.”

Zarubin probed: “But you’re constantly observing and assessing the potential of each person, right?”

And Putin simply replied: “Yes. That’s right.”

The bizarre interview – “Russia, Kremlin, Putin, 25 years” – was intended to reveal new personal details about the notoriously secretive Putin.

The dictator claimed the apartment has been his main base during the war against Ukraine, but it looked far from homely.

Ironically, a large portrait of Russian Emperor Alexander III is sat on a desk when the two open the doors on the left side.

Dubbed “The Peacemaker” the Russian Tsar fought no major wars during his reign – a far cry from Putin’s rule.

But the emperor was also known for tight censorship, empowering the Russian secret police, cracking down on political dissenters, revolutionaries, and nationalist movements, including Ukrainians – all of which may appeal to Putin.

Putin became president on the last day of 1999 and served from 1999 to 2008, before serving as prime minister until 2012.

The former KGB lieutenant colonel then became president for a second time in 2012

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