PROVO — Anyone looking for a building-restoration project comparable with the excellence represented by Salt Lake's City-County Building should tour the spacious new state-of-the-art Library at Academy Square — formerly the Brigham Young Academy — at 550 N. University Avenue in Provo.
The restored library was opened to the public last month — but before the restoration project was started in 1999, the dilapidated Brigham Young Academy building was rated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as the most important endangered historical building west of the Mississippi.
The first, original structure of present-day Brigham Young University, the Academy building was dedicated Jan. 4, 1892. In 1903, the building formally became the university and was consistently utilized until 1968.
In 1911, the Karl G. Maeser Building, the first upper-campus building, was completed, and between 1911 and 1968, BYU students hurried between the lower and upper campuses.
In 1985, BYU sold the Academy building and placed a historic easement on the edifice, requiring that the facade be retained. And over the next 20 years, the building changed hands many times, during which at least 10 renovation attempts failed, according to Douglas Smoot, BYU engineering professor and head of fund-raising for the restoration project. (Smoot became involved in the project partly because his great-great grandfather, Abraham O. Smoot, was both mayor of Provo and the first president of the BYU Board of Trustees.)
Increasingly during that period, the building was in terrible disrepair and decay. For several years, bulldozers were on the verge of destroying it. But the Utah Heritage Foundation believed it had the legal responsibility to preserve the building, and in 1991 it successfully sued the city of Provo to stop demolition.
"Lawsuits are never pleasant, but it kept the building up while local support could coalesce," said Lisbeth Henning, UHF executive director. "This is one of the most significant landmarks in Utah and one of the dearest and best-loved buildings in Utah County. This is a place with a real spirit about it."
That's why the foundation held its annual preservation awards dinner last week at what is now the Library at Academy Square. The ideal room for the dinner was the spectacular 4,000-square-foot ballroom. It has four cast iron pillars original to the room, and the windows provide a terrific view of the Wasatch Front.
When Smoot was asked to spearhead fund-raising for the Brigham Young Academy Foundation in 1995, he was skeptical. "I thought it was impossible, but we promised a professional and unemotional effort. We raised $70,000 to conduct a feasibility study, trying to determine if it could be recovered and if it would make a first-class library."
The study resulted in a positive recommendation, so Smoot and the foundation began searching for a good preservation-architecture firm to tackle the project, and they ended up with seven interested parties.
MJSA Associates (formerly Max Smith Associates) got the bid, and Robb Pett was appointed head architect for the project. The architectural firm determined that if three other buildings on the block were torn down, the original Academy building could be preserved and an addition could be added to the east. The firm estimated that $23 million would result in a first-class library.
Smoot remembers that "the library board was quite interested, and we made presentations to the City Council. The mayor opposed it, but the council approved the process. We said, 'If you will approve the library on this block, we will raise the difference in privately raised funds.' We decided to bond for $16.9 million and raise the difference ourselves. We told the citizens of Provo it would cost them no more than the bond amount."
The local citizenry voted yes to the project by 58 percent to 42 percent, and Jacobson Construction was chosen out of a dozen contractors to do the job.
The acceptance of the funding was important for the conservative community. Today, Henning says, "This represents the best of preservation with local citizens giving their own money. The result is an amazing project that Provo and all of Utah can be really proud of. The architects and planners showed great creativity. Ultimately, no sacrifices were made in achieving the best library possible."
Robb Pett said it was determined that the exterior would be restored and the interior would be "adaptively re-used."
"It was not a full restoration," Pett said, "as we did with the Governor's Mansion. The exterior was a true restoration.
"I wouldn't say we used extraordinary techniques. We didn't create new science here. For instance, you have to ask how far would you go to save a windowsill? If it is failing to function, it should be replaced. But we re-created the internal stairs that had been moved over time."
Much of the original brick was used in the exterior walls, and a replica of the old "Y Bell" is contained in the tower over the front entrance.
In the Bullock Meeting Room, there is a beautiful transom window, the only piece of stained glass installed in the original building. Many years ago, when the building had fallen into disrepair, two young men secretly removed the stained glass window, crated it up and moved it to California for safekeeping. When they heard of the restoration plans, they returned the window, which needed only minor repair before it was put back in its original setting.
On the west lawn in front of the building is the beehive fountain, a replica of the original that was built in 1914.
Pett believes it to be "a wonderful building" today, and he is "honored to have been part of it. There were a lot naysayers, but at the end of the day, they can feel good about the product. They have a wonderful state-of-the-art library."
A major challenge to Pett was how to put a new building next to an old building "without creating a false sense of history. After all, the building had sat derelict for almost 20 years. It was on the endangered list. This was a project that took blood, sweat and tears. The exterior now is very dramatic, and as you stand on the second floor, looking through the glass vault that connects it to the new building, you see the transition of old and new."
The "glass vault" is an artistic window titled "Passages of Light" and was designed by Mack Magleby, BYU graphic artist, rendered in glass by glass artist Willy Lettig. Most impressive is a book depicted in the window, which rises from the reader's hands and transforms into a bird, giving the viewer a sense of the freedom reading can bring.
As Smoot looks back on the projects, he remembers feeling a sense of duty to his great-great grandfather, his Provo roots and his connections with BYU.
"But what really drove me," Smoot said, "was the keen desire not to be a part of a failing effort. When I got into it, I was really motivated by the desire to make it happen. We were very lucky in many ways. It turned out more beautiful than I imagined it would. I worried a lot about the money. But overall, I value it as one of the most valuable and rewarding experiences of my life. I don't regret a second or a single penny of it."
With 100,000 square feet, the new library is three times the size of the old one. The amenities include more than 100 computers, a children's reading circle, public-reading and conference rooms, underground and above-ground parking and a number of other attributes.
Although the final cost was $24 million, the citizens of Provo did not have to fork over any extra money — and they have a stunning building that is both functional and representative of their historical roots.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com