Two free webinars exploring the dismantling of the historic Wayfarers Chapel, its history and its uncertain future because of ongoing land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes are scheduled for this week and next month. The first webinar, hosted by the Los Angeles Conservancy, is titled “People + Places: The Way Ahead for Wayfarers Chapel” and will take place at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 18.
The California Preservation Foundation will then host “Documenting & Disassembling and NHL (National Historic Landmark): Hazard Response for the Wayfarers Chapel,”at noon on Oct. 10. Speakers at the Los Angeles Conservancy discussion will include its president and CEO, Adrian Scott Fine, architects involved in disassembling the landmark, and Dan Burchett, Wayfarers’ executive director.
“We saved most of the elements of the chapel itself and they will be stored until we can rebuild” Burchett said in an email. “Finding a site to rebuild is going to likely take 18 months to 2 years just to confirm the site. We are in conversations but these things take considerable time, especially under our circumstances.
” Liz MacLean, architect and principal in Architectural Resources Group’s Los Angeles office, will take part in both webinars. “I think the goal of both of them is just to share a little bit about the process we just went through,” MacLean said in a phone interview, “which was obviously a very fast paced and unique project for us all who worked on it, just to share a little bit of the background, obviously the history of the chapel.” ARG was brought in to help complete the National Historic Landmark designation process, MacLean said.
Wayfarers had been designated a landmark in December 2023, just a few months before its closure. Because of their familiarity with the building, she said, ARG was “really (got) the ground running and help(ed) support the disassembly.” Wayfarers Chapel, Fine said, is “small in stature, but big in impact in terms of what the place represents too so many different people across Southern California that have visited it.
” “I think part of it is understanding the process, but also hearing from those that were involved, what did it take to even think about how do you dismantle this building in a way that it’s, you know, intact and can be re erected in the future?” Fine said about Wednesday’s webinar. “And for them to hear more about kind of the planning that’s going in and the thinking about that process.” Wayfarers Chapel, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr.
, opened in 1951 and became a beacon of spirituality and beauty, attracting countless people for weddings for decades with its expansive view of the Pacific Ocean. Heavy rains the past two winters, though, caused serious damage across Rancho Palos Verdes, as well as the Palos Verdes Peninsula as a whole, i ncluding upended roads , destroyed hiking trails , and damaged homes, along with natural gas and electrical shut offs in recent weeks . Dismantling the glass-and-redwood Wayfarers began in May and concluded with most of its 80-foot bell tower torn down .
MacLean said “we were not able to save the stone of the bell tower.” “We were able to save the tower cross, the roof tiles, the staircase from inside,” MacLean said. “But because of the condition of the site and just for the safety of the contractors working there, they weren’t able to get a crane that was long enough on that site.
It just wouldn’t have been safe to set up scaffolding in a way that they typically would on stable ground.” But, MacLean said, the lower portion of the bell tower remains. “We were brainstorming with the structure engineers and the contractors to figure out different ways we could do it,” MacLean said.
“But at the end of the day, the land had shifted too much at that point, and maybe even earlier in the process.” To register for the LAC webinar, visit laconservancy.org .
The webinar can be seen following the live event on YouTube at youtube.com/@laconservancy . To register for the CPF event on Oct.
10, visit californiapreservation.org/events/wayfarers-chapel ..
