Stand under seventeen aluminium spires in a modernist chapel
Reopening August 2028
The chapel of the United States Air Force Academy: seventeen aluminium and glass spires over four separate places of worship, currently inside a restoration enclosure.
Why it's unique
Seventeen tetrahedron spires rising 150 feet in a row, in aluminium, glass and steel. It was designed with twenty-one and built with seventeen after the 1959 budget was cut, and the shortfall is why the rhythm of the roofline is what it is. It is a National Historic Landmark, and before it closed it was the most visited man-made attraction in the state of Colorado.
What makes it more than a striking silhouette is that a single structure holds separate Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist worship spaces stacked and arranged within the one frame, each with its own entrance and its own light.
It is closed. A restoration that began in 2019 uncovered asbestos and misalignment in the steel, and the building now sits inside a climate-controlled enclosure. The enclosure is expected down by July 2027 and the chapel is due to reopen to the public in August 2028. It is catalogued now so the entry is ready, and it is marked closed so nobody is sent to a construction site.
Before you go
Do not go yet. The building is wrapped in a white climate-controlled box and there is nothing to see; the enclosure is scheduled to come down by July 2027 with public reopening in August 2028.
When it does reopen, note that visiting the Academy at all requires a visitor pass, which is a separate step from turning up, and that requirement should be re-checked at the time rather than assumed. The restoration has already run seven years over its original schedule, so treat the 2028 date as a plan rather than a promise.