With only six months remaining until LDS general conference convenes in the new 21,000-seat Conference Center, work on the mammoth project is progressing rapidly.The massive LDS Conference Center will seat 21,000 people -- more than three times as many as the venerable Tabernacle.Gary M. McKellar, Deseret News
Some 1,000 workers are on site each day, hustling to complete the huge structure made of 112,000 cubic feet of concrete with granite facing. "That's equal to 500 miles of sidewalk," quipped project manager Tom Hanson, who on Friday led a contingent of reporters around massive blocks of granite facing and through the partially finished auditorium before ending the tour in the roof-top gardens.
"There's nothing else like it on the planet," he grinned, looking out over the fan-shaped rooftop expanse covering a building that could fit what it is replacing -- the Tabernacle on Temple Square -- and then some.
That mental picture reflects a bit of the sentiment Hanson said many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feel toward the Tabernacle, which will house its last sessions of the semiannual general conference today and Sunday. Scheduled to host the April 2000 sessions, the Conference Center will seat more than three times as many people as its predecessor, whose hand-hewn hardwood benches were fashioned for hardy pioneer souls grateful for any seat available indoors.
Those occupying the individual, high-backed theater seats in the new auditorium will enjoy the air-conditioned comfort that sometimes eluded them in the Tabernacle.
Other comparisons between the two facilities are inevitable, given the historic nature of the transition that will take place between buildings.
Acoustics are one concern many have expressed about the Conference Center, Hanson said, noting that "there won't be any pin drops heard" in the new auditorium. Acoustically, the Tabernacle is considered a marvel, particularly since it was completed 132 years ago by pioneer craftsmen who had to improvise when it came to tools and material. Temple Square tour guides regularly impress visitors to the Tabernacle by dropping a pin at the pulpit to demonstrate how the building's dome-shaped roof reflects sound. When the crowd is quiet, the pin drop can be heard at the rear of the building.Soil on top of the structure will be transformed into a three-acre "mountain meadow" that will be open to the public.Gary M. McKellar, Deseret News
"There's about 10 million cubic feet of air in that room," Hanson said of the new auditorium, noting that overcoming the acoustical challenges the expanse entails has been a monumental task.
"The human voice won't carry very far" inside, so sound engineers are using state-of-the-art computer modeling to design a sound system for the building, because no precedent for it now exists. Hanson said the next-largest auditorium he is aware of is the National Theater in Mexico City, which seats 10,000 people.
"Our goal is to have those at the rear of the building hear every word as clearly as if they were right up next to the pulpit." Because the acoustical emphasis is on voice projection, music from the new organ and the choir will be enhanced electronically, Hanson said.
Another unique feature of both the Tabernacle and the Conference Center is the distinctiveness of their respective roofs. The Tabernacle's silver-domed oval shape provides a sharp contrast with the six spires of the adjacent Salt Lake Temple. The Conference Center will feature a 90-foot tower at the crest of a waterfall that will plunge down in front of a huge window on the south side of the building. The tower pierces the sky against a backdrop of roof-top gardens, featuring flower-and-tree-filled planters, fountains, plazas and marble-lined walking paths.
Of interest to many LDS Church history buffs is the fact that the garden description fits nicely with a statement President Young made when speaking about the design of the Salt Lake Temple back in April 6, 1853. Responding to inquiries from "the brethren" about what the planned temple would look like, he said he had seen its six spires in a vision.Worker makes a clean sweep of the upper seating area.Gary M. McKellar, Deseret News
And he said of future church buildings: "The time will come when there will be one (spire) in the center of temples, we shall build, and, on the top, groves and fish ponds. But we shall not see them here, at present."
No official reference to that statement has been made by the church with regard to the design. Hanson said the 3-acre "mountain meadow" on the building's roof was suggested by design architect Bob Frasca of Portland, and the project's landscape architect from Philadelphia. He said the two walked to the porch of the McCune Mansion in the neighborhood behind the building to get a sense of how the roof would look, and decided it needed landscaping, rather than a huge, bland rooftop.
Modern technology has made the plan feasible, Hanson said, with seven different layers of material, including six inches of Styrofoam, underlying the gardens and water features. "I've been asked about that very issue by some very important people" who were concerned about whether the roof could support the weight of the gardens and whether it would be waterproof.
The gardens will be open to the public, he said, probably with visiting hours similar to those at other public areas owned by the church.
Safety and stability were also built into the structure, with construction mandated to meet the same earthquake-proof standards as buildings in Southern California. Utah requires less-stringent building standards, but church leaders wanted to be certain the building would endure, Hanson said. "I think the safest place in town during an earthquake will be sitting right in here," he said.
Church officials don't discuss the cost of the new building, Hanson said, but he did say it was within the projected budget.
During groundbreaking ceremonies for the building held July 24, 1997, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley said the Conference Center "will be built as well as we know how to build in this season of the history of the world, and I hope that it will stand for as long as the Earth lasts and serve the purpose of the Kingdom of God."A construction worker walks under the columns of the southeast entrance to the hall, which will be ready for conference next year.Gary M. McKellar, Deseret News
While discussion among church leaders about the feasibility of constructing a new facility for general conference sessions dates to 1940, the semiannual meetings have been held in the Tabernacle on Temple Square for more than a century. President Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to President Young, gave the first address from the new Tabernacle's pulpit on Oct. 6, 1867. He remarked, "I have seen a great many people assembled out of doors, but never have I seen so many in one house before!"
Four years in construction, the oval-shaped Tabernacle replaced the old Tabernacle, which was built in 1851-52 on the site where the Assembly Hall now sits on Temple Square. The first major building on the block, the old Tabernacle, consisted of low adobe walls, a gabled roof and a floor below ground level. It was small from the beginning, seating only 2,500 people, and by 1854, the general conference congregations had outgrown it, so conference sessions were held outdoors, much like they had been after the pioneers first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.
Daniel H. Wells, second counselor in the First Presidency in April 1863, announced at general conference that "we want to build a tabernacle to accommodate the saints at our general conference . . . that will comfortably seat 10,000 people." Following instructions from President Young, the Tabernacle was designed so the roof would be self-supporting, with arched lattice trusses as the primary supports, allowing an unobstructed view. The new auditorium will also feature wide-open views of the stage, rostrum and pulpit.
The renowned Tabernacle organ, designed and installed by pioneer craftsman Joseph Ridges, comprises 11,623 individual pipes and has been updated and overhauled several times over the years.
It continues to be the musical centerpiece around which the Mormon Tabernacle performs its weekly radio broadcast and church officials have said the Tabernacle and its organ will continue to host the Sunday choir broadcast, the longest-running weekly radio program in America, now in its 70th year.
Hanson said while the facade of the new Conference Center organ will be in place next April, the instrument itself won't be functional at that time.