The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will publicly dedicate its newly completed Conference Center on October 8, during the 10 a.m. general session of the 170th Semi-annual General Conference.
President Gordon B. Hinckley, leader of the Church with total membership now at approximately 11 million, will preside at this session and offer the dedicatory prayer following his remarks. Church members worldwide will participate in the dedication, including those assembled in the 21,000-seat Conference Center auditorium - believed to be the largest religious and theater auditorium in the world.
"This is truly a magnificent building," said President Hinckley. "I know of no other comparable structure built primarily as a hall of worship that is so large and that will seat so many. It is beautiful in its design, in its appointments, and in its wonderful utility."
Finishing touches to the Conference Center include installation of the console for the 7,667-pipe organ which debuts on October 7. Never in musical history has a pipe organ been played in an auditorium that seats 21,000 people. Another recent addition is the Conference Center Theater. Seating approximately 900 people, it is comparable to a Broadway theater with computer-controlled lighting and a high-tech sound system capable of surround sound.
Newly completed landscaping atop the Conference Center roof includes a re-creation of the wild landscape of a Utah mountain. Visitors will enjoy 1,400 trees throughout the Conference Center grounds, including the Bristlecone Pine, Swedish Aspen, and Serbian Spruce in the rooftop landscape. Also blanketing the roof is an Alpine meadow with wild flowers and 21 native Utah mountain grasses. Sparkling rooftop fountains now include one which flows from under the spire and cascades 67 feet down the front of the building.
"When we discovered in the design process that we were going to have nearly four acres of roof, we decided that we needed to do something special," says Bishop H. David Burton, Presiding Bishop of the Church. "We hope that the rooftop can be a place where people can come and sit and enjoy the solitude and the marvelous view that presents itself there."
This conference will be the first one in history broadcast with a high-definition digital signal for HDTV, using the Conference Center's state-of-the-art broadcast facilities. The Conference Center dedication and general sessions of conference will be relayed via satellite to Church gatherings throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. Sessions will also be carried live in the Intermountain region of the United States by Salt Lake City's KSL-TV, Channel 5, and KSL Radio, 1160 AM. More than 1,500 other radio and television stations and cable systems will carry all or portions of conference proceedings.