I live in Utah, and aside from some of the historic Latter-day Saint temples in Salt Lake City, Logan, and Manti, the average LDS church is just so... uninspiring. They face the double whammy of bland, functional architecture, and oversized parking lots. The giant parking lots seem especially egregious in an area where the density of Latter-day Saints is so high that you practically can't find somewhere to live that isn't within a 5-minute walk of a chapel, do we really need that much parking? It seems like a perfect example of plentiful free parking inducing car trips that could otherwise be made by foot. These churches are the heart of public life for many of these suburban neighborhoods but still never manage to be iconic in the same way that churches in the much more secular New England region are.
I live in Utah, and aside from some of the historic Latter-day Saint temples in Salt Lake City, Logan, and Manti, the average LDS church is just so... uninspiring. They face the double whammy of bland, functional architecture, and oversized parking lots. The giant parking lots seem especially egregious in an area where the density of Latter-day Saints is so high that you practically can't find somewhere to live that isn't within a 5-minute walk of a chapel, do we really need that much parking? It seems like a perfect example of plentiful free parking inducing car trips that could otherwise be made by foot. These churches are the heart of public life for many of these suburban neighborhoods but still never manage to be iconic in the same way that churches in the much more secular New England region are.
So true!