SM Seaside City Cebu built a 1,000-seat church stands on a 2,220-square-meter lot in a corner of SM Seaside City.
A Filipino-American architect Carlos Arnaiz based in New York was commissioned to design the SM Seaside City Cebu Shrine of Mary, Mother of God, which will be the first building that will rise on SM Prime Holdings’ 30-hectare lot at the SRP.
Architect Carlos Arnaiz said the SM Seaside City Cebu church’s design is both mysterious and welcoming.
The church will be the first building that SM Seaside City Cebu SRP will finish. Their plan is to finish the church in the second half of this year so that by December, it can already be used.
Archdiocesan media liaison officer Msgr. Achilles Dakay confirmed that Archbishop Jose Palma agreed to the construction of the church and that the archdiocese will support SM’s undertaking.
It is the first time that a private entity is financing the construction of a church in Cebu.
Palma and SM already agreed on that. SM promised that they will first build a chapel before they start the mall. That’s their own lot and their own expense so the role of the archdiocese will only be to provide them with priests, and they will have to let us say mass there. And of course, the archdiocese will have to consecrate it.
The interior layout of the church is quite interesting because it has two sides to it. From one angle, it’s very open and from the other, it’s very closed. We want to create a church that, from the closed side, appears mysterious, a kind of monument that makes you curious about it and makes you want to discover what is there. But from another side, it’s actually very welcoming.
