HELENA — The 9,794-square-foot Helena temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be formally dedicated on June 18.

The public is invited to see the temple during open houses that run 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, except Sundays, through June 3 on 4.5 acres at 1260 Otter Road in Treasure State Acres in north Helena. The tours are free with no reservations needed. More information is available at https://bit. ly/3BscbOh. After that, the temple will be closed to the general public.

The building is the first Church of Jesus Christ temple built through the "design-manufacture-install" (DMI) process.

Church officials five years ago announced the construction of 133 new houses of the Lord, a news release states. This prompted church leaders to consider ways to speed up construction while maintaining the same high-quality craftsmanship.

BLOX designed and built the temple at its 50-acre facility in Bessemer, Alabama, and then put those prefabricated pieces — walls, floors and other components — together in Helena with cranes and other lifting equipment.

BLOX arranged the temple into 25 separate modules. Each of those pieces was moved by truck to the 4.8-acre site in Helena, where workers stitched together the modules. The electrical, plumbing, heating, cooling and ventilation systems, along with exterior art deco stone cladding and tower assembly, were also done on-site, church officials said.

Up until this project, BLOX (founded in 2009) had focused on emergency rooms in hospitals and isolation care units rapidly deployed to address COVID-19 bed shortages.

Leo Paul, an assistant project manager, said the Helena Temple structure was pieced together on-site in two weeks.

Matt Burke, of the church's special projects department, said "No buildings have ever been tried to be built at this level with modular construction."

Church officials would not disclose the cost of the project.

The temple was announced April 4, 2021. The groundbreaking was June 26, 2021, and construction started July 19, 2021.

It has some Montana flourishes.

The decorative pattern was derived from the buttercup plant found in Montana. Flower and leaf designs drew from Native American geometric patterns and detail bands mark the transition between the building and sky.

The exterior art glass represents the roots of the buttercup plant and the edges of the glass create a blue border to the window, a reference to Native American beadwork.

The entry portico references the Richardsonian-Romanesque entry of the Power Building in Helena, with its low arch, church officials said. Helena is the 179th operating temple.

The design architect was McNichols Architects of Chicago. The architect of record is GA Studio of Vancouver, British Columbia. Interior design was by Naylor Wentworth Lund Architects and the contractor was Haskell/BLOX.

The temple is reserved for church members who have committed to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and are ready to participate in further sacred ordinances. Members present a card called a "recommend" at a desk at the entrance foyer. The card was issued by their local church leader certifying that they are prepared to enter the temple.

They then go to dressing rooms to change into white clothing. This change of clothing serves as a reminder that patrons are temporarily leaving the world behind and entering a holy place, church officials said. White clothing symbolizes purity and being dressed alike in the temple creates a sense of unity and equality.

There are 51,000 Latter-day Saints in Montana and Billings has the only other temple in the state. Another temple will be built in Missoula, and Church of Jesus Christ officials said the module method will be used for that construction as well.