Within the final 12 months, the Instagram-famous Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes has held an estimated 400 weddings within the glass-walled construction overlooking the ocean, costing every couple $5,400 — and extra in the event that they scheduled their nuptials on a weekend or opted for the floral or candle add-ons.
However regardless of its steep charges, the favored marriage ceremony venue is dealing with a rising monetary disaster. The accelerating landslide complicated on which it sits is cracking, crushing and threatening your complete property, forcing its indefinite closure, whereas much-needed restoration work has fallen by the wayside.
“As of proper now we’ve got zero revenue coming in and we don’t for the foreseeable future,” mentioned the Rev. David Brown, the chapel’s minister. “What we are attempting to assemble is a few path ahead to reopen the grounds. … We’re in a really difficult scenario.”
The reverend final week launched an attraction for donations on GoFundMe to attempt to elevate cash that can be utilized to stabilize the realm and, ideally, assist with the long-term wants of the ageing chapel. It had raised nearly $50,000 as of Thursday, however Brown mentioned the most recent estimates for restoration might price $10 million to $20 million — and that’s solely as soon as the landslide is stabilized.
“We don’t understand how lengthy the landslide and the motion goes to proceed,” Brown mentioned. Although metropolis officers didn’t but deem the chapel and its grounds unsafe to enter, the escalating harm led the chapel to voluntarily shut final month.
Within the final two weeks, the chapel’s nonprofit operators have issued dozens of refunds to {couples} who had weddings booked, totaling about $1.5 million, Brown mentioned.
However the landslide solely exacerbated points dealing with the chapel. The salty air across the church, inbuilt 1951, has proved corrosive, and a long time of wear-and-tear have taken a toll. In December, Brown estimated the mandatory restoration would price $8 million, far past the nonprofit’s means, even with a whole lot of weddings a 12 months.
He mentioned a worth improve after the COVID-19 pandemic started to assist the venue — “for a sizzling second” — accumulate cash for the wanted capital enchancment undertaking.
However now, all that momentum has reversed.
“Sooner or later to the subsequent, you see how briskly the land is transferring,” Brown mentioned. “Sadly it took us closing down and the harm to an iconic nationwide historic landmark to … get the attention raised.”
He mentioned that in simply the previous couple of days, a cornerstone of the chapel cracked. Glass panes have shattered and sidewalks have buckled. They just lately repaired the driveway, just for it to once more want repaving weeks later.
The customer heart, which was constructed within the early 2000s on what was deemed extra steady floor, is now shifting too.
“It was often known as the piece of the property not on the landslide zone, set in stone,” Brown mentioned. “Within the final seven months, you may hear the cracking, the inspiration, the partitions…. It’s simply been loopy the quantity of motion.”
Town is hoping to expedite remediation efforts to sluggish the land motion, however there’s been no replace on federal officers declaring Rancho Palos Verdes a catastrophe space, which might probably release further funding streams. Brown mentioned he stays hopeful federal assist might nonetheless come, not only for the chapel, however for the 400 close by properties additionally dealing with unprecedented motion.
Designed by Lloyd Wright, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s son, the 100-seat glass-and-wood chapel was solely just lately named a nationwide historic landmark, a designation Brown had been chasing to assist with fundraising. The brand new standing has but to pay dividends, nevertheless.
And not using a formal congregation, not like most different church buildings, Brown mentioned elevating consciousness concerning the chapel’s shaky future has been his best choice.
Because the voluntary shutdown, he’s acquired a flood of calls and emails from folks reminiscing about their reminiscences of the chapel and anxious for its survival.
“It’s been an iconic place for folks … a touchstone for spirituality,” Brown mentioned. “The connection for folks transcends … beliefs, as a result of folks come right here they usually really feel one thing.”
Although open to the general public, the chapel is affiliated with the Swedenborgian Church, constructed to assist folks really feel a connection between God and nature.
For Lara Lesaca, the chapel was the proper spot for her and her husband to start out their life collectively, fulfilling a lifelong dream of hers to get married there.
“I used to be set on it,” Lesaca, 29, mentioned. “It was stunning, all of it got here into place.”
However studying that others received’t have the ability to do the identical was crushing, she mentioned.
“I used to be upset as a result of I don’t know if it’ll find yourself opening,” she mentioned, “to even go to sooner or later, or present my children the place we acquired married.”
Regardless of having made a hefty cost to the chapel for her marriage ceremony (although, Lesaca famous, the payment was decrease when she and her husband booked a couple of years in the past), she mentioned she would look into contributing to the fundraiser. She doesn’t wish to see the chapel’s doorways closed completely.
Instances workers author Terry Castleman contributed to this report.
