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Albuquerque New Mexico Temple Photography – 2006 – 2012

My History: The Albuquerque New Mexico Temple

To Date I have been to the Albuquerque New Mexico Temple twice. The first time I helped a friend move some stuff from Utah to El Paso. What a friend. On the way down we stopped by the  Temple to take some photos. It was mid January, but being the southwest it was short sleeve weather. Everything was brown and dry, which made for a kind of bleak setting.

The Second time I was with my wife and not yet 2 year old daughter. (Amazing how much can change in 5 years.) We stayed the night in Albuquerque, so I was able to get some evening shots as well as afternoon ones, making technically a total of 3 visits.

This is a temple I would love to visit again. Maybe in the spring, when the trees are just in leaf.

Thoughts on The Albuquerque New Mexico Temple

The Temple in Albuquerque shares the same base floor plan as Houston Texas Temple. Even thought they have radically different exteriors.The color of the Temple comes from precast concrete panels. The panels have been mixed using a “Desert Rose” colored mortar that give it a color that brings to my mind adobe mud huts. To the eye the concrete typically ranges from pink to a tan depending on the time of day or the type of light. This can make for some interesting variation in your photography.  The foundation of the temple is paneled with a Texas pearl granite.

One striking feature of the temple is the spire. The spire is three stacked blacks. While the blocks decrease in width as you go up, their height varies from short to tall to short again. Many of the temple spires look more like a steeple, like they were intended to make your eyes drift up to heaven. The Spire on the Albuquerque New Mexico Temple looks more like a pillar for displaying the Angel Moroni to rest upon. It gives the statue more prominence in the design.

Details

The Albuquerque temple has its entrance on the west side of the temple.

Spire

The spire is a single three stepped construction on the east center of the temple

Angel Moroni

The Angel Moroni Statue sits atop the single spire of the temple. the statue faces east with the trumpet turned south east.

House Of The Lord Holiness To The Lord

There is one engraving on the Albuquerque Temple. The engraving is on the center east section of the temple underneath the spire.

Cornerstone

The cornerstone is near the south east corner, on the east side of the temple, facing east.

Symbolism

Sun

The Temple has 2 representations of the sun. The first is on the west side, molded into the precast concrete. The second is directly opposite, in the single large stained glass panel on the east side.

Moon

The Albuquerque temple has 19 arches spaced around its exterior (4 north, 4 east, 4 south, 7 west.)

One of these contains the previously mentioned sun. The North and south 4 contain a large circle within the top of the arch.

The 4 on the east contain 4 representations of the moon at various stages. near full, waxing, waning and near new.

Of the six on the front, the most north and most south are empty circles. The other 4 mirror the 4 on the east side, making 8 representations of the moon

Stars

The Albuquerque temple has stars extruding from the precast concrete on the lowest section of the spire. There are 5 on each side, for 20 stars total.

Additional info on the Albuquerque New Mexico Temple

Albuquerque

Albuquerque

More links to the Albuquerque New Mexico Temple

• Mormon Newsroom – Albuquerque New Mexico Temple
• LDSChurchNews.com – Albuquerque New Mexico Temple
•  Wikipedia – Albuquerque New Mexico Temple
• MormonWiki.com – Albuquerque New Mexico Temple
• MormonTemples.com – Albuquerque New Mexico
• Oakland Construction – Albuquerque New Mexico Temple
• Fanning, Bard and Tatum (Architects Home Page, no info on this temple on their portfolio however.)

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