Anchorage Daily News

There's a curious landmark pushing skyward from a muddy lot on Fireweed Lane near Gold Cache Bingo and the Grab-A-Dab.

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It's a whitish, pointy, corrugated metal structure that started slowing traffic last year. At the light near A Street, idling drivers gawked as a towering steel cone morphed into what now looks like a stack of giant hatboxes piled 10 stories high.

The mysterious building isn't yet finished, but describing it has become a neighborhood pastime. It's a teepee. An upside-down ice cream cone. A pagoda, done in Danish Modern. It's even piqued the imagination of the construction workers.

"Does this look like a giant wedding cake to you?" one asked on a recent, icy morning.

The building is, in fact, a church for La Luz del Mundo, an evangelical nondenomination Christian group based in Mexico. It's built in a shape meant to funnel God's light -- in the form of rainbow-colored electric beams -- upon the faithful.

When it's completed, the spire will preside over the dusty mishmash of Midtown, an architectural standout among the bland angles of '70s strip malls and office buildings, gas pumps and garages. The twisted icon on the roof is already visible from the parking lot of Wal-mart to streets of downtown, beckoning all to a Hispanic spiritual oasis in Anchorage's Little Korea.

INSIDE THE CONE

The church is notably small -- it can hold only about 80 and even then the parking seems dubious -- but it's mainly symbolic, designed to look like the La Luz del Mundo headquarters, a much larger landmark church located in a Guadalajara suburb, explained Jose Lopez, one of the church's assistant pastors. An identical church is being constructed concurrently in Chile. The little churches represent the northern and southern-most reach of the church's missionary efforts, he said.

The front door will open into an oval sanctuary, with heat that radiates from the floor, said Carroll Stockard, the architect, as he crunched around the site on a recent morning. The room will be almost entirely devoid of natural light, featuring instead a 100-foot ceiling that looks like the inside of a hollowed-out, seven-tiered wedding cake. Each tier will be illuminated in a color of the rainbow, he said. The walls will be adorned with stucco and brightly-colored tiles. Light will pour onto the altar, where a small baptismal pool is hidden in the floor.

La Luz del Mundo claims about 6 million members worldwide, though there are only about 35 in Anchorage. The nearly $1.8 million needed to construct the church was mostly raised by parishioners in Oregon. For the moment the church holds services in the Taco Loco building, Lopez said. Its pastor, on loan from a church near Portland, comes here every few months. His sermons between visits are given live via the Internet. The new church will feature a large projection screen.

The church's design is steeped in religious symbolism, though there isn't an official interpretation, according to Carlos Montemayor, a North American La Luz Del Mundo spokesman based in California. Some say the big one in Mexico looks like the train of a wedding dress, meant to symbolize fidelity to Christian beliefs, or a veil like those worn by church women. The design also repeats the number seven, a biblically significant numeral.

"It is a personal interpretation," Montemayor said. "Some people, they see a cloud and they see it one way; some people see it the other way."

THE NEIGHBORS

Fireweed's eclectic, multicultural character makes it a tolerant area. Half the merchants speak Korean and you can buy just about everything there, from frozen squid tentacles to false eyelashes, pancit noodles to pawned table saws. Still, the building has caused a stir.

"It's kind of weird architecture for here," said Amy Royce, a floral designer at Hummel's Flowers, who can see the church poking over the top of Romano's Italian restaurant. "But this is kind of a weird place."

Just around the corner, Rodney Cochran, a tattoo artist, leaned over a design destined for a bicep in the waiting area.

"I'm all for inventive creations, but that's just hideous," he said. "You could probably take that thing to the middle of New York City. With all those fancy sculptures, it still wouldn't look right."

Under the Irish flag at Reilly's pub across the street, bartender Pablo Nowak dumped a bucket-load of ice on a recent morning.

"Do I like it? It's actually kind of cool," he said. "It's different. Different's good."

TURNING HEADS

The church turns heads deliberately. La Luz del Mundo makes a practice of translating evangelism into architecture, constructing conspicuous buildings that invite the curiosity of the unconverted, Montemayor said. There is, for example, a replica Mayan pyramid in Honduras, a mock Taj Mahal in Mexico, and a Greco-Roman temple along a Texas freeway.

"It might catch the eye," said Cesar Rivas, another local assistant pastor, with his wife, Blanca, interpreting from Spanish. " But, only God will work in the heart."

Services are conducted in Spanish, but are translated for parishioners who don't speak the language. So far there is only one such church-goer, Frank Walters, 20.

Walters, who is Alaska Native, was raised in a Catholic family but started coming to church because his wife did. He got along with the other men, and enjoyed the singing, he said. Members are encouraged to sing regardless of their singing ability as an expression of devotion. He's excited to worship at the new church.

"Some friends told me it's like a wedding cake, I think it looks more like a holy staircase," he said.

At Gold Cache Bingo, next door to the church, manager Steve Borcherding has watched the crane haul up each layer. One day a whole fire truck pulled up, and the crew got out. He thought there was a fire until he realized they were eyeballing the church.

"It's drawing some attention here, that's fine with me," he said. "Want to know where are we located? We are located next to that big white thing. Whatever it is."

Find Julia O'Malley online at adn.com/contact/jomalley or call 257-4591.

La Luz Del Mundo

An evangelical Christian group, led by Samuel Joaquín Flores, believed by his followers to be an apostle of Christ. The church was started early last century by Joaquin's father, Aaron Joaquin Gonzalez, who is said to have received a message from God directing him to preach the gospel. La Luz Del Mundo has churches across the United States and South America, and claims 5 million to 6 million members worldwide. Followers are encouraged to attend church daily. Women are asked to cover their heads while praying. Services include accompanied singing. Church teachings focus on the New Testament.

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