COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — The Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel restoration project is getting more expensive with yet another delay, now targeting November 2028 as the completion date.
Last month, the Department of Defense (DoD) awarded another $88 million contract to construction firm J.E. Dunn for chapel restoration work, which bumped the estimated total cost up 36% from $247 million to $335 million.
The ballooning price is approaching almost half of what was spent to restore the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a 2019 fire, but that project was completed in about half the time.
The cadet chapel closed its doors in October 2019 as the intensive restoration process began, which was initially expected to cost about $158 million. Since then, the project has been delayed for years with rising costs attributed to an extensive discovery of asbestos.
This latest nearly $90 million contract modification came about “to address unforeseen structural discrepancies and design conflicts discovered during the restoration process,” according to the Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC), which oversees the project.
AFCEC said this new money “ensures the long-term structural integrity and watertightness of the Cadet Chapel and will resolve issues that have plagued the building since its opening 60 years ago.”
The latest delays push the completion back to 2028, according to AFCEC and the DoD, though project webpages on the Air Force Academy (USAFA) website still state 2027.
The 52,000 square-foot chapel opened in 1962 and immediately suffered water leaking, which led to a number of “band-aid fixes” to try and stop it, according to USAFA Architect Duane Boyle during a press event in April 2024.
After years of efforts to maintain the chapel, the Air Force provided funding in 2016 to begin the large-scale process of renovation and repair.
J.E. Dunn Construction was first awarded the contract in July 2019 ahead of the October closure.
The skyrocketing costs might lead some to question if it’s worth spending that much taxpayer money on a singular project, especially in light of the second Trump Administration’s apparent goals of cutting government spending.
Neal Evers, an associate teaching professor and associate chair of the Environmental Design Department at CU-Boulder, said there is a worthy debate to be had, but he thinks the money spent is worthwhile.
“My opinion is it's one of the most seminal pieces of modern architecture in the United States, if not the most–that's an arguable statement–but this Air Force Academy [chapel] was kind of the first modernist building, or modernist architecture, in a time when modernism was really taking off in the 50s,” Evers said.
He did call the chapel process “unprecedented” and found it difficult to compare the time and money spent to other restoration projects.
“I don't know if an expectation for a timeline is fair, but I do think when they say it'll take 4 or 5 years and instead it takes closer to 10, that's a problem,” said Evers.
In the August USAFA Board of Visitors meeting, conservative influencer Charlie Kirk urged Academy leadership to fast-track the process. Kirk said many cadets expressed disappointment that they’d go four years through USAFA without ever setting foot in the chapel.
“I think nine years is outrageous, honestly. I know there was a lot of asbestos–enough to fill a bunch of football fields,” Kirk said in the meeting. “Nobody wants that. But I mean, this is the US Air Force. We're here to do things quickly and in a modern way.”
Kirk mused about what would happen if this project became a “top priority” for the Secretary of Defense or White House if they wanted to “streamline” the restoration.
The Board of Visitors is tasked with making recommendations about the Academy to the Secretary of Defense.
But architectural experts like Neal Evers don’t expect any amount of large financial injection to speed up the project in a meaningful way.
“A project like this has so many stakeholders,” Evers said. “There's the Department of the Interior would be involved because this is on the National Historic list of places, and so they have to preserve things in a certain way–and their processes will have to be reviewed and signed off on. And I think there are actually 3 or 4 different architecture firms involved, so I think just the number of stakeholders is probably why it's taking as long as it is. And it's not really a matter of monetary resources.”
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