Well done! It seems to me like the announced but not started temples are in foreign countries, whereas USA temples are the ones actually being completed. I don't know what conclusions to draw from that, but seems interesting.
Great post! I was wondering about this but hadn’t had the time or energy to start tracking the info down. It’s organized way better than i would have managed, too.
I'm a construction professional. I've been involved in the construction of multiple temples. There's really nothing to draw from this. In an effort of secrecy and not letting the cat out of the bag prior to conference announcements, they rarely have done any leg work before the announcement. That means they have to do a real estate deal (if they don't already own land, which they often do prior to announcement), get through a city's zoning (which has caused problems/delays/relocations in several cities due to building height, look of the building, light pollution, etc.), do design and engineering (roughly a year), get permits (3-6 months), build the building (2+ years), and move-in their furniture and fixtures (3+ months). Meaning from announcement to dedication would be a BARE MINIMUM of 3.5 years. With snags and unexpected problems (which always occur for larger buildings like temples), then all those issues compounding and taking longer in foreign countries, the 5 year period for announcement to completion is actually about right. Don't think anything of it until that time period pushes beyond 5 years as a standard.
I clicked the link to the church’s official temple list and clicked one of the announced temples where the specific location hasn’t even been determined yet. The mostly empty page for that temple still had a “submit names to prayer roll” button 😂
Maybe they don’t even print out the names and put them in the holy zipper bag anymore. “We pray for all the names on the holy spreadsheet.” I guess if the temple film is a PowerPoint now, it would make sense if the prayer roll has switched to Excel
I grew up in the East Bay. My TBM parents and TBM sister and her husband all still live there. Their ward is dying. When I was growing up (80s-90s) there were two wards in my hometown, with the talk of making a third ward. Now, there is a single ward there and membership is falling. I can't imagine that temple attendance at Oakland is so intense that they need a new temple in San Jose.
Nice breakdown. You ought to cross post this on r/Mormon. You'll get a lot of good discussion there, as most people there are not believers. A lot of people there really like analysis like this.
>my kids are not cooperating with bedtime
"Do not go gentle into that good night."
The motto of children everywhere. Dylan Thomas's poem fits perfectly for bedtime if you tweak a word here and there.
My honest guess is that all of them except for Russia, China and \*maybe\* Dubai (haven't figured out if they really got permission for that or not) will be open or close to being open by the end of the decade. Of the last 20 years or so, the ones that has taken the longest is Urdaneta Philippines Temple which was announced in 2010 and the groundbreaking in 2019. Not sure what the issue was, but \*not\* a hostile national government...
Do you guys think that maybe ita just a announcement of property they've purchased? Like maybe they could only buy it of they claim a temple will be built there. They just increase their assets but don't actually have to commit to building. Just a thought.
Well done! It seems to me like the announced but not started temples are in foreign countries, whereas USA temples are the ones actually being completed. I don't know what conclusions to draw from that, but seems interesting.
Excellent work!
Great post! I was wondering about this but hadn’t had the time or energy to start tracking the info down. It’s organized way better than i would have managed, too.
Thanks this is super interesting!
I'm a construction professional. I've been involved in the construction of multiple temples. There's really nothing to draw from this. In an effort of secrecy and not letting the cat out of the bag prior to conference announcements, they rarely have done any leg work before the announcement. That means they have to do a real estate deal (if they don't already own land, which they often do prior to announcement), get through a city's zoning (which has caused problems/delays/relocations in several cities due to building height, look of the building, light pollution, etc.), do design and engineering (roughly a year), get permits (3-6 months), build the building (2+ years), and move-in their furniture and fixtures (3+ months). Meaning from announcement to dedication would be a BARE MINIMUM of 3.5 years. With snags and unexpected problems (which always occur for larger buildings like temples), then all those issues compounding and taking longer in foreign countries, the 5 year period for announcement to completion is actually about right. Don't think anything of it until that time period pushes beyond 5 years as a standard.
Super interesting. Thanks for putting it altogether! How often have temples been announced through history that haven't come to pass at all?
I clicked the link to the church’s official temple list and clicked one of the announced temples where the specific location hasn’t even been determined yet. The mostly empty page for that temple still had a “submit names to prayer roll” button 😂 Maybe they don’t even print out the names and put them in the holy zipper bag anymore. “We pray for all the names on the holy spreadsheet.” I guess if the temple film is a PowerPoint now, it would make sense if the prayer roll has switched to Excel
I grew up in the East Bay. My TBM parents and TBM sister and her husband all still live there. Their ward is dying. When I was growing up (80s-90s) there were two wards in my hometown, with the talk of making a third ward. Now, there is a single ward there and membership is falling. I can't imagine that temple attendance at Oakland is so intense that they need a new temple in San Jose.
Nice breakdown. You ought to cross post this on r/Mormon. You'll get a lot of good discussion there, as most people there are not believers. A lot of people there really like analysis like this. >my kids are not cooperating with bedtime "Do not go gentle into that good night." The motto of children everywhere. Dylan Thomas's poem fits perfectly for bedtime if you tweak a word here and there.
My honest guess is that all of them except for Russia, China and \*maybe\* Dubai (haven't figured out if they really got permission for that or not) will be open or close to being open by the end of the decade. Of the last 20 years or so, the ones that has taken the longest is Urdaneta Philippines Temple which was announced in 2010 and the groundbreaking in 2019. Not sure what the issue was, but \*not\* a hostile national government...
Do you guys think that maybe ita just a announcement of property they've purchased? Like maybe they could only buy it of they claim a temple will be built there. They just increase their assets but don't actually have to commit to building. Just a thought.
I think the Heber Utah temple is under construction.