why oh why does this have to be so far away? something like this has to have more prominance in our city!
Bad location.
This should be somewhere..... well, anywhere but where it is.
There's no way they could have built it for $40 million downtown...the land alone could have cost more. It's like suggesting the Crystal Cathedral should not be in Garden Grove.
These structures are always built away from the cities that are attached by their name: Chicago is really several miles away in Bartlett, IL; the same with Houston which is located actually in Stafford, TX. Believe me, they know what they are doing, they will be heavily attended in their Ontario location, by followers and tourists.
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Yes cost is a primary factor for location, but where the main population that will participate is located is usually a major factor as well. Asian Indian communities near Bartlett IL, for example, are large enough to support several types of sects of Hinduism aside from this one, within a two-mile radius. Finally, Swarminarayans support their buildings not just by actual monies but also "sweat equity" labor and skills, donated for free and thus not part of the cost (that was mentioned in a previous post). Historically, until the train and car made the suburbs prevalent options, other religions built new churches the same way, but in the poorer sections of the cities.
Is anyone concerned about how well the marble will age? Being right next to a highway can't be good.
Marble will hold up just fine. Look at Chicago and New York, which have several buildings clad in marble at the base of the structure and have withstood decades of grime, auto pollution, acid rain, and normal wear-and-tear created by humans (like graffitti and a few other unmentionables) with minor consequences. The only problem that I can see will be increasing costs to build with marble in the future, especially the type of white marble that their sect demands.