The Conference Center , in Salt Lake City, Utah, is the main meeting hall for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Substantially completed in the spring of 2000, in time for the April 2000 General Conference of the church, the 21,000-seat Conference Center replaced the traditional use of the nearby Salt Lake Tabernacle, built in 1868, for semi-annual LDS Church general conferences and key church meetings, worship services, and other events. It is believed to be the largest theater-style auditorium ever built.
Video LDS Conference Center
Features
The 1.4 million square foot Conference Center (130,000 m 2 ) accommodates 21,200 people in its main auditorium. This included a pulpit behind a pulpit facing the audience, which provides seats at general conferences for general authority and general church officials and a 360-vote Mormon Tabernacle. The auditorium is large enough to accommodate two Boeing 747s side by side. All the seats in the audience have an unobstructed view of the pulpit because the roof is supported by radial scrolls. The balcony is supported by a series of 34 cantilevers. This construction method allows the balcony to sink 5 / 8 inch (16 mm) below full capacity. Behind the podium there are 7,667-pipe and 130-rank Schoenstein pipe organs. Underground is a parking garage that can accommodate 1,400 cars. A three-story modern chandelier hung from the ceiling on the inside of the building. Waterfall down from the top of the tower. City Creek flows in the rough river basin, completing the Conference Center.
On the third floor of the Conference Center there are statues of church presidents and photographs of present and past LDS leaders; photos of female LDS leaders added in 2014.
Since the building is located near the Capitol Hill base in Salt Lake City, the roof has an interesting view, an extension of the Gardens at Temple Square. Approximately 3 hectares (12,000 mò) of grass and hundreds of trees have been planted on the roof. Twenty-one native grasses are employed to conserve water and display local foliage. The landscape is meant to echo the mountains and Utah grasslands.
Conference Center Theater
Attached to the main building in the northwest corner is the Conference Center Theater which can be used as a special theater or as an overflow room.
Maps LDS Conference Center
Planning and construction
The design of the Conference Center was completed by Portland, Oregon-based Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, which is the architect of the design and Auerbach & amp; San Francisco Partner, responsible for theater design and architectural lighting. The design was requested by LDS Church architect Leland Gray in the early 1990s, apparently at the request of Gordon B. Hinckley. Hinckley later became a counselor in the First Presidency, but became President of the Church in 1995. The LDS Church initially sought a 26,000-seat building no more than 75 feet (23 m) tall according to the zoning regulations for the 10-acre LDS Church (40,000 mÃ,²) immediately block north of Temple Square. Hinckley publicly announced the project in a general conference April 1996. The final plan, completed in late 1996, featured 21,200 seats in the main hall with 905 at the side theater.
Building contracting was done by three Salt Lake City companies: Jacobsen, Layton, and Okland construction companies who bid together to compete with national companies. The companies operate together under the name "Legacy Constructors" after winning the contract in late 1996.
The demolition of the LDS Church property on this site began in May 1997. Deseret Gym - a gym similar to YMCA - and the Mormon Craft store must be destroyed for the project.
The land was destroyed July 24, 1997. This date coincides with the 150th anniversary of the Mormon pioneers entering the Salt Lake Valley, an event celebrated in Utah as Pioneer Day.
Little Cottonwood Canyon controversy
Although the Conference Center is a modern steel truss and rebar-based design without the need for masonry support, the LDS Church requested quartz monzonite sheets, a form of granite, to fill all exterior walls. In particular, the church wanted granite to match rocks dug over a hundred years earlier to build the adjacent Salt Lake Temple. Therefore, the LDS Church requested permission to mine granite from Little Cottonwood Canyon in southeast Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake County Commission granted a two-year license on condition that the retraction does not interfere with the ski season. Critics of extraction argue that excavation is endangering the environment and burdens the population while endangering riders through Little Cottonwood Canyon below.
Excavation began May 28, 1998. Although court proceedings challenged the legality of granite excavation (specifically assaulting the authority of Salt Lake County to issue permits), the project was only plagued by winter weather. The LDS church finished mineing in November 1999. Over 300,000 square feet (28,000 mÃ, ²) of granite was extracted. The granite is then cut into slabs at a facility in Idaho Falls and used for building facades. There is not enough granite to be extracted from the Little Cottonwood Canyon mine for the entire project, so additional granite is brought from the middle-west and used for the floor.
Enhancement
The highly unusual Salt Lake City tornado hampered construction on 11 August 1999. Construction cranes were overthrown at work, and four crew injuries were reported. If not, the construction runs smoothly and quickly.
The construction was complete enough for the building to be used for the 170th general church conference on 1 and 2 April 2000. The pipe organ was not operating, so the Mormon Prosperity Guild was accompanied by synthesized organs reinforced through the Center speaker system. President Hinckley said in his opening speech that more than 370,000 people had asked about tickets for the inaugural Central Conference. President Hinckley also recounted that the black walnut tree he had planted decades earlier in his backyard provided wood for the new central pulpit.
The Conference Center was dedicated six months later, on October 8, during the 170th annual general conference. As part of the event, the dedicatory prayer was followed by a "hosanna shout" - a show of gratitude that began in the early days of the Latter-day Saint movement. The cry involves participants waving a white handkerchief while repeating "Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna, to God and Lamb" three times. Although it had been used in public before, as during the capstone ceremony of the Salt Lake Temple and at the centenary celebration of the church in 1930, before this public broadcast of the hosanna shout, some assumed that it was only concerned with the dedication of the LDS temple, which was inaccessible by non-Mormon. The Dedication Conference Center shows that the hosanna's shout, though considered sacred by Latter-day Saints, is not always used exclusively in temple-related environments.
Schoenstein's Organ at the Conference Center
Magnum Opus: The Schoenstein Organ Building at the Conference Center by John Longhurst, a retired senior Tabernacle Organist, examines the concepts, approvals, designs, and construction of central organs of the Conference visible during the general conference of the church. This book contains color images and audio CDs with narration by organ builders and music illustrations by the Tabernacle organ.
Gallery
References
Halcamon, W. Dee (2000). LDS Conference Center . Salt Lake City: DMT Issuance. ISBN 978-0-9705023-0-8. OCLCÃ, 45206328.
Further reading
- Springer, Carly M. (September 8, 2014), "30 Things You Did not Know About the Conference Center", LDS Living
External links
- Media related to the Conference Center on Wikimedia Commons
- The Official Utah Tour Site: LDS Conference Center
- Deseret News Church News Features: Conference Center Tour
- Set in the Rock: The Beauty of the Architecture of the Conference Center , a documentary at the Conference Center of BYU Television
- Tour online at Temple Square
- Conference Center Organ Specifications
- ASLA DESIGN AWARD 2003: Green Roof Conference Center LDS]
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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