I Am Obsessed

I’m guessing that if you are reading a blog titled “Obsessive Temple Architecture Syndrome,” you are a pretty interesting character or else just curious. Sure, it’s a bizarre title. But it’s literal. Like, it’s exactly what it looks like. I am obsessive about architecture, more especially religious architecture. And because I am a Mormon, well, LDS temples are pretty much my thing (sorry if you were expecting a treatise on Buddhist temples).

What is really interesting to me, as much as the architecture itself, is the story behind it. Because all architecture has a story. And when you learn the story of a building—when you learn about the people who built it and why and what they were thinking and feeling as they designed and constructed it—it becomes almost hallowed in its own right. Victor Hugo opined that architecture is (prepare yourselves for a butchering of his actual intended meaning) something of a window into the souls of those who made it, and their stories are told more boldly and clearly in stone than would ever be written on paper. And I like Victor Hugo. So there.

Now, most everyone has seen a Mormon temple—from the outside. But very few will ever step inside one. And even those with temple recommends will not be able to see most of the temples in the world—traveling is prohibitively expensive for most of the world’s population (which is why there is a period where the Church was building very small, nearly identical temples—to minimize cost and construction time so as to bring the temples to the people). But each temple has a story, and I find it is on the inside of the temple that the story is told in the most detail and with the most beauty. It’s the interior architecture that inspires me most. And that is why I would like to share with everybody my chronicle of the interior architecture of LDS temples, from oldest to newest.