the Shrine has experienced a continual rise in weekly worshippers and pilgrims visiting from the Latino community , including recent immigrants . In the late 1980s , locals established the Shrine with a grassroots effort on a 122-acre campus shared with Maryville Academy , a residential institution that has served children for over a century . However , after years of temporarily decorating a 1937 school gymnasium as a weekend worship space , Maryville Academy permanently ceded the gym to the Shrine . The result is a dedicated space for the Shrine reborn from the old gym — an important example of adaptive re-use / repurposing .
The Latino community celebrates the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe each December 12th . In Mexico City , millions of worshippers fill the plaza and surrounding neighborhoods for several days . In contrast , pilgrims traveling to Des Plaines typically endure less temperate conditions , which has not deterred thousands of devotees who walk , bike , drive ,
The dark interior of the 1937 gym used as a shrine before the renovation .
or even ride on horseback from across the nation .
The year-round congregation at the Shrine recognized the extreme sacrifice that so many were offering to Our Lady . While holy images and a humble “ Cerrito ” ( a hillside meant to resemble the holy site in Mexico City ) provided some sense of spiritual fulfillment , they recognized the need to have a permanent space of worship
Exterior of the renovated chapel . worthy of that sacrifice . The congregation formed a building committee to repurpose the gymnasium as a dedicated Shrine chapel . The Committee held several meetings to interview key constituencies to determine the structure ’ s program , including the congregation , neighbors , and pilgrims from across the nation . During the pilgrimage in 2018 , the Archdiocese of Chicago inaugurated the Chapel of St . Joseph as the Shrine ’ s first year-round worship space . The design team , led by our firm ( Wheeler Kearns Architects , Chicago ), helped transform the old gym into the Shrine ’ s first climate-controlled , sacred , sheltered space for more than 6,000 weekly worshippers and over 300,000 pilgrims during December ’ s annual Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe celebration .
More than 75 percent of the former gymnasium structure was reused : The original timber
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