By Samuel Castor
The Manhattan Temple, often criticized for having the appearance of just another office building, will soon stand in the shadow of a 78-foot spire.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints received permission to add a 10-foot angel Moroni statue, along with a 68-foot base, as the last addition in a line of renovations. Since May 28th, officials working on the building located one block west of Central Park and just across the way from the Lincoln Center, have been seeking permission from New York building authorities to add the angel Moroni.
'It''s a temple, and we traditionally have an angel on our temples,' said Scott Trotter, New York public affairs director for the LDS Church. 'This was always the plan all along.'
Melinda Higbee, who attended church services in the building before the reconstruction, said although the new renovations forced them to hold religious meetings in members'' houses, the disruption has been well worth the wait.
'The part they have done on the street is just gorgeous, they''ve done some really intricate work, and its made it look really beautiful,' she said.
Higbee, one of the 42,000 local LDS residents, and a BYU alumna said adding the angel will make it undeniably a religious building.
'Right now it''s really just a box,' Higbee said. She said the statue is 'a decorative piece that will set it apart as more of a house of worship.'
Higbee also commented on the interior explaining one of the reasons the temple appears more office-like is because the temple has no outer wall or landscaping common among temple settings.
Carrie Giles, a BYU student majoring in advertising, recently attended the temple open house agreed with Higbee on the need for the Moroni.
'Right now they just don''t really have anything setting it apart,' she said.
Giles said although the temple was built into limited space, the new construction helps visitors feel like they are in a large building,
'It was beautiful, beautiful,' Giles said commenting on the wood working, raised roofs and stained glassed windows.
Although most LDS temples have Holiness to the Lord engraved on the outside of the temple, in the Manhattan temple the engraving appears after the first set of doors.
'It''s sort of like the first set of doors will function as the gate around this temple,' Higbee said.
Shelley Garner, a public affairs representative for the LDS Church said the uniqueness comes from the range of activities that are housed there - with the baptismal font situated on the first floor, office buildings on the second, meeting houses on the third and fourth and the temple finally sitting on the fifth and sixth.
'The temple is above the chapel literally and symbolically,' Garner said. 'It''s pretty literal when people are going through different parts of the temple, and they go up to the different rooms, all the rooms are elevated as they progress through the temple.'