Given all the above comments that you can ‘worship god anyhere’ why is a place for aetheists to gather any more a waste of money than a church ?

As for ‘be a nice atheist and spend that money on people that actually need the help’ couldn’t you say the same of any religion?

Religions have taken, and continue to take, a vast amount of wealth from society (more often than not from the poorest and most in need) spending the majority of it on their own self indulgence.

However, De Botton is right that there is something in religion that is currently only available through religion (see his Ted Talk about that). This "something" could be link to the sens of wonder in life, or the feeling of belonging to a large human brotherhood (indeed it's easier to feel as brothers when there is a Father :D), the feeling to be a small part of a meaningful whole picture…

I think De Botton is trying to take this "something" out of religion so that it can be available for non believers too. When being religious and feeling anxious about the meaning of life and death, or about your place in this universe, you go to church. When being an atheist and feeling the same anxiety, where do you go? De Bottom wants to answer to that. Books help in this respect, but they usually provide only a person-to-dead-author relationship, and fail to provide the emotion of greatness needed to fill the hole.

This must not be a temple for atheists, this must be a temple for philosophy, humanism, mankind, rationalism and all things that can build meaning without God. In short, places to celebrate mankind as a whole, to say loudly to all visitors : "No, you are not alone."

Symbols and monuments are powerful to carry on ideas, they must not be reserved to religions.