PHOTO ESSAY

From October 20 through November 13, 2010, Church leaders expect over 100,000 visitors — assisted by hundreds of Latter-day Saints volunteers from throughout the island of Oahu — to tour the insides of the recently renovated Laie Hawaii Temple. President Joseph F. Smith, who first came to the Sandwich Islands as a 15-year-old missionary in 1854 and was given the Hawaiian name Iosepa, dedicated the site for this precious tropical jewel on June 1, 1915. Unfortunately, President Smith passed away in 1918 without returning to his beloved islands again.

(All historical photos courtesy of BYU–Hawaii Archives) Before then, other Church leaders had foretold of a temple in Hawaii: In the summer of 1864 while visiting Laie, Sandwich Islands missionary Elder William W. Cluff received a vision about the significance of the small community that would eventually become home to the Laie Hawaii Temple, Brigham Young University–Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center. In that vision President Brigham Young, in far-off Salt Lake City, told Elder Cluff: “This is the place, and upon this land we will build a temple unto our God.” And when George Q. Cannon, one of the first Latter-day Saint missionaries to Hawaii in 1850, returned to the islands as First Counselor in the First Presidency in 1900 to celebrate the mission’s golden jubilee, he also prophesied that one day a temple would be built in the islands.

When President Heber J. Grant dedicated the newly completed structure on Thanksgiving Day 1919, it was only the fifth Latter-day Saint temple in the Church and the first of three — including the Cardston Alberta and Mesa Arizona Temples — that Hyrum Pope and Harold Burton designed in the shape of a Greek cross. In the dedicatory prayer President Grant referred to Elder Cluff’s experience: “We thank thee, O Father, that the promise made in a dream to thy servant, William W. Cluff, by the prophet, Brigham Young, that the day would come when a temple should be erected in this land is fulfilled before our eyes.”

Pope and Burton’s unique design, without the familiar spires and towers of the other four temples then in operation in Utah, proved more economical to build. It also allowed the young architects to incorporate the Lamanite influence of Mesoamerican temples through the friezes on the top, which respectively face the cardinal compass points. Two Utah brothers, J. Leo Fairbanks and Avard Fairbanks — only 28 and 18, respectively, when they began the commission — sculpted the friezes to represent people and events from Church history (pictured above, facing east), the New Testament (south), the Old Testament (west) and the Book of Mormon (north).

People sometimes ask why the Angel Moroni is not included on the Laie Hawaii Temple, but probably because of the distance they cannot see that Moroni is represented near the center of the frieze on the front of the temple: He is holding the “plates” in his hands while standing just to the left of the kneeling Joseph Smith Jr. receiving his first vision.

(©2010 Intellectual Property Reserve. All rights reserved.) Scale models the Fairbanks brothers first created for the friezes, which previously hung in the temple’s chapel, have now been artistically displayed in the newly renovated foyer where patrons may more closely inspect their beauty and details. Models of the friezes can also be found in a courtyard near the Distribution Center, opposite the Laie Hawaii Temple Visitors Center on the makai or seaward side of the grounds.

(©2010 Intellectual Property Reserve. All rights reserved.) The brothers also designed the temple’s elliptical baptismal font and sculpted the 12 oxen supporting it. Laie Hawaii Temple President H. Ross Workman, a former member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, pointed out that because of the relatively small size of the baptistery, the oxen had to be rotated 45-degrees from the cardinal compass points, but those directions are represented with gold-leaf arrows near the oxen’s feet. The font required extensive renovation but the original oxen were preserved. The original murals were also preserved, and new art glass by Utah artisan Tom Holdman and his team was added not only in the baptistery but also throughout the Laie Hawaii Temple. A new stairway was also created so patrons moving from the chapel to the first ordinance room need no longer interrupt baptisms for the dead, which previously had to stop for the procession.

The mauka or inland side of the temple. (©2010 Intellectual Property Reserve. All rights reserved.) Contractors also installed a new exterior entrance to the baptistery, shown on the right side of the picture above, that echoes the architectural style of the temple’s new front entrance, and they enlarged the baptistery’s confirmation room.

For decades after the Hawaii Temple opened, faithful Latter-day Saints traveled to Laie from throughout the Pacific islands and Asia — including this group from Japan in the early 1970s — to enjoy the blessings of the Lord’s House. For example, some of the earliest Samoan families in Laie moved there to be close to the temple. As the Church constructed and now operates 18 other temples in the region, starting with Hamilton New Zealand in 1958, the number of Pacific and Asian patrons gradually diminished. The Hawaii temple district further split when the Kona Temple opened in 2000; and today, the district includes all the stakes on the islands of Oahu and Kauai as well as the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific. While the temple in Laie was closed for the renovations, Church leaders encouraged patrons from Oahu and Kauai to attend the Kona Hawaii Temple and some were set apart to assist as ordinance workers when they were there.

Looking mauka or inland, by design the appropriately named and beautifully landscaped Hale La’a Boulevard draws the eye to the Laie Hawaii Temple. From a distance the exterior of the temple looks much as it has since its last major renovation and subsequent open house in 1978. Hale la’a, in the Hawaiian language, means a building that is sacred or consecrated for holy purposes.

Drawing closer, it’s apparent that a new front canopy and columns have been added to the Laie Hawaii Temple. In designing those features for the current renovation, senior project architect David Brenchley of FFKR Architects in Salt Lake City, Utah, explained that Pope and Burton were heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie home style of building, and that it was professionally thrilling for him to work in that same style. “They loved his [Wright’s] work and his design style… Designing those columns in that style is something that Pope and Burton would be proud of.”

Planning for the renovation began in 2006, preceded just a few years before then by a major makeover of the Hale La’a Boulevard approach to the temple. The history of this scenic street goes back to November 13, 1956, when President David O. McKay told labor missionaries who were working on the permanent campus of BYU–Hawaii (called the Church College of Hawaii until 1974) that the new boulevard needed to remain open to the ocean. For many years the wide avenue was lined with majestic 70-foot Norfolk pines; but when President Gordon B. Hinckley came to Laie to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Polynesian Cultural Center, he also broke ground on October 25, 2003, for the new Hale La’a Boulevard viewscape. In his blessing at that time, President Hinckley prayed “those who drive along the Kamehameha Highway may be constrained in their hearts and minds and slow down and look to the House of the Lord, and be constrained in their hearts to come and go about the grounds and visit these beautiful places. We pray that this project may result in greater respect for Thy church and its people and its purposes and its desires.”

President Hinckley returned to Laie on December 11, 2004, to dedicate the Hale La’a Boulevard project, along with a new front entrance for BYU–Hawaii and renovations to the Laie Hawaii Temple Visitors Center. As the prophet left the BYUH Cannon Activities Center that day, the Saints sang the beautiful Hawaiian farewell song, Aloha ‘Oe, with more emotion than usual, realizing the aging prophet would probably never come to Laie again.

The temple closed on December 28, 2008, and renovation work that took approximately 22 months to complete started on January 5, 2009. One of the first changes everyone noticed was that nighttime lights were turned off: The temple was no longer a brilliant beacon. “One of our primary focuses in the remodel was to bring back some of the historical features of the temple that had been lost over the years,” said John Stoddard, Laie Hawaii Temple project manager for the church’s Temple Department. He explained that as actual demolition began, however, it was apparent many things needed to be added to the initial designs, “where it basically became a complete remodel of the interior of the temple… No matter how much preparation you do, once you start into remodel work, you uncover things that you just have to adapt and change to.” He added one pleasant surprise they discovered was that “the central core that was built in 1919 was pretty stout” from a seismic perspective. “We were impressed with the workmanship details that were done, with the materials that they had in 1919,” Stoddard said. “The basic structure is strong and is going to last for another hundred years.”

During the renovation construction workers replaced the roof and drainage systems; installed new sidewalks, handrails and benches as well as re-landscaped the grounds; made structural and external changes to better accommodate handicapped patrons; replaced air conditioning, electrical, mechanical and operating systems; stripped all the old paint off the temple walls and applied new finishes.

Ordinance room 4 was heavily renovated to improve handicapped accessibility (©2010 Intellectual Property Reserve. All rights reserved.) The interior of the Laie Hawaii Temple is now virtually new. “It ended up that we have basically touched every room in the temple. I think the Church did a great job in going forward with it,” said Brenchley, the senior architect.

The recommend desk (©2010 Intellectual Property Reserve. All rights reserved.) Changes also include a totally renovated lobby, new locker rooms and restrooms, and a new training room for ordinance workers.

(©2010 Intellectual Property Reserve. All rights reserved.) Revamped window casings let in more natural light, such as in this sealing room, which also features hand-sculpted Hawaiian motifs in the carpet and “infinity mirrors.” Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Assistant Executive Director of the Church’s temple department who conducted one of the first open house tours for the media, explained that infinity mirrors are precisely positioned opposite each other to create endless reflections “that represent our posterity in front of us and our ancestors behind us.” Elder Kikuchi, who is originally from Japan, formerly served as president of the Hawaii-Honolulu Mission and president of the Tokyo Japan Temple.

The original murals were preserved and refurbished. (©2010 Intellectual Property Reserve. All rights reserved.) Greg Hill, an interior design manager for temples and special projects in the Church’s Physical Facilities Department who’s worked on over 80 temples, said he feels the Laie Hawaii Temple renovation work reflects its Hawaiian roots. “I have tried to bring in the feeling of the Hawaiian culture, a feeling of the islands, a feeling of the South Pacific” as found in the patterns of the carpet, wall coverings, fabrics, [prized endemic Hawaiian] koa wood trim, art glass, literally miles of decorative gold leaf pin striping, palm-themed lamps “and pieces of art showing Hawaiian landscapes, seascapes, rain forests, and waterfalls.” “There is no question as you walk through the space, as you move from room to room, that you will experience the sacred ordinances that we come to the temple for in a setting that is very Hawaiian,” Hill said.

The celestial room (©2010 Intellectual Property Reserve. All rights reserved.) “In all of my work throughout the world,” Hill continued, “I have always felt a very keen responsibility to bring to the temple not only the Spirit of the Lord that is primary in our intent, but also a cultural aspect that allows the Saints in each of these areas throughout the world that this is their temple, that this is something that is unique to them [and] to the place that they live.” In addition to some of the subtle Hawaiian motifs found in the Laie Hawaii Temple’s celestial room, there are also historical elements of refurbished art glass with stylized tree of life designs; and each of the crystals in the chandelier were preserved from its predecessor and hung by hand.

Several months ago, as renovation work on the Laie Hawaii Temple neared completion, Elder Scott D. Whiting, a member of the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy and Area Authority for Hawaii, organized a steering committee to prepare for every aspect of a public open house. “We’ve been meeting for months in preparation for these three weeks, and we’re excited about it,” he said. The committees coordinate the efforts of hundreds of Saints on Oahu who have volunteered as ushers and guides, and to work on physical facilities, publicity, parking, housing and refreshments, tickets, security, documentation, music, a massive cultural celebration and first aid. In addition, more full-time sister missionaries were brought in to bolster the number normally serving at the Laie Hawaii Temple Visitors Center, and even former sister missionaries now attending BYU–Hawaii have volunteered to serve. “There have been wonderfully pleasant surprises where we felt we had hit a roadblock in some of our planning. Through the creativity and inspiration of our committee members, they’ve found ways to negotiate around some of the logistical issues that we had,’ Elder Whiting continued. For example, he said the committee planned to use the nearby Laie 1st Ward chapel — originally built with funds raised at the Hukilau event on Laie Bay and dedicated by Elder Matthew Cowley on March 5, 1950 — as a staging area for the open house tours, but concern over the weather and the distance between the chapel and temple led to renting a series of tents that now fill the temple parking lot, as depicted above. Open house visitors form into groups in the tents and watch an 11-minute video explained the meaning of temples to Latter-day Saints before walking through the building. Volunteers provide the visitors with refreshments in another tent when they exit, as well as the chance to fill out comment cards.

More recently, temple president H. Ross Workman called several hundred previous and new temple officiators and began training them. He told them in a training meeting, “The temple is physically beautiful… It is far better than my most hopeful anticipation.”

“Here we have a sacred, beautiful place that invites the Spirit,” President Workman said.

Those who have already toured the “new” temple agree. For example, a Catholic man from Honolulu said “it surpassed anything I could have expected out of the temple”; and Lianna McMillan, a bishop’s wife from Pearl City who was married in the Laie Hawaii Temple over 30 years ago said, “I wanted to cry in so many rooms of the temple. We’ve missed being here. We’ve been through the Kona Temple a couple of times, but there’s nothing like having one right at home.” Following the open house period, the temple will temporarily close again for re-cleaning and preparation for three re-dedication ceremonies on November 21. The preceding day over 700 youth from throughout Oahu and Kauai who have been practicing for months will put on two performances of The Gathering Place, a cultural celebration in the BYU–Hawaii Cannon Activities Center. The Laie Hawaii Temple will reopen to members with current recommends for regular ordinance and endowment sessions on November 22, 2010. Mike Foley began his long association with Laie when he moved there in 1967 soon after serving a mission in Samoa. Over the years since he worked at BYU–Hawaii, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Hawaii Reserves, Inc. and has been a freelance writer and digital media specialist for the past 10 years.