The LDS Church has announced plans for construction of a new LDS institute building to replace its aging facilities at the University of Utah.
Ralph Swiss, director of physical facilities and real estate for the Church Education System, told the Deseret News on Thursday that demolition will begin this fall on the two chapel facilities just east of the Salt Lake Institute of Religion at 1800 E. Campus Drive. Construction on the new facility is set to begin early next spring, though a contractor has yet to be selected for the project, he said.
Because the buildings serve not only as chapels for Sunday worship but as classrooms for students taking religion classes during the week, arrangements are now being finalized to handle the thousands of students who will be displaced by the move.
With steady growth in student numbers expected, Swiss said church leaders decided to build an entirely new facility rather than continue to renovate and remodel the existing buildings, which include the north and south chapels and the original Salt Lake Institute.
The new facility will include two separate wings, connected by a glass-enclosed atrium walkway designed to allow for student interaction. A chapel will be housed in each wing, as will a large multipurpose area designed to accommodate basketball and other activities during the week, and religious services on Sunday. The chapels will be closed off from the multipurpose area with movable curtains, allowing as many as 5,000 students to be accommodated simultaneously for religious services and other events when necessary.
Classrooms, office space for faculty and religious leaders, and a family history center also will be included in the new facility. Swiss said church leaders have long been concerned about the limited access for handicapped students in the current facilities. The new building will allow easy access for all on each of the two full levels, as well as a partial third level in each wing.
Placement of the new building will be on the spot where the north and south chapels are, so they will be demolished first, leaving the original building intact until the new facility is completed. It will then be demolished to provide parking for the new building. Some 30 additional parking stalls will be added.
Completion of the 114,000 square-foot facility is scheduled for early summer of 2002. "We hope to have the building looking good," for the 2002 Winter Olympics, Swiss said.
Housing now being built at Fort Douglas for athletes will eventually house hundreds of additional students, many of whom will use the new Institute.
"President (Bernie) Machen and his people have been very solicitous of the great LDS kids who attend school there," and have voiced support for the church's plans.
The LDS Church owns most of the property south of the Huntsman Center where the current facilities now sit. Two newer chapels located several hundred yards southeast of the existing Institute facilities, and the original Institute building, will be used to house religion classes during the weekday while the north and south chapels are demolished. Extended scheduling of afternoon and evening classes also will be in effect during the construction period. Swiss said there are no plans to use space in University buildings for that purpose.
LDS student wards, composed of both University of Utah students and other LDS young adults, use the existing facilities for Sunday worship and week-night activities. "We'll have to displace eight wards in order to do this, and they will be relocated to places scattered throughout the city," Swiss said.
The Salt Lake Institute now houses about 5,500 University of Utah students and about 600 young adults who are not enrolled at the U. but take classes and participate in student wards there. The new facility will house as many as 10,000, with space for an additional building on the site if needed at some point, he said. Initially, two LDS stakes and 13 wards will occupy the buildings in additional to regular classroom and faculty use. At maximum capacity, the building could house 16 wards, he said.
The building's architectural plan is the same as those slated for the new Salt Lake Community College campus in West Jordan and Dixie College in St. George. "We'll just have two of the same buildings at the U., connected by a walkway, where the others will have only one," he said.
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