Situated in the upscale suburb of La Jolla in San Diego, the striking double towers of the San Diego California Temple soar above I-5 in heavily populated Southern California. Connecting the towers at the center is a supernal star-shaped atrium filled with a healthy, colorful garden. The atrium is accessed from the breathtaking two-story Celestial Room filled with towering art glass, suspended light fixtures, and featuring a grand staircase to an upper-level balcony. The public is invited to tour the manicured temple grounds and a visitors' center honoring the San Diego Mormon Battalion located 10 miles south of the temple in Old Town San Diego. The San Diego California Temple was the third temple built in California, following the Los Angeles California Temple (1956) and the Oakland California Temple (1964). The architects for the San Diego California Temple were William S. Lewis, Jr., design architect; Dennis Hyndman, project architect; and Shelly Hyndman, interior design architect. The Hyndmans, who are Roman Catholic, had not toured the interior of a Latter-day Saint temple until the Las Vegas Nevada Temple open house commenced in 1989. After suffering a mild heart attack four months earlier, President Ezra Taft Benson made his first trip outside the Salt Lake Valley to break ground for the San Diego California Temple—his first time presiding over a temple groundbreaking. On Monday, December 23, 1991, the 186th anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith, a <b>...</b>
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