Church Office Building -- 38 Stories Tall?

By Lynn Arave

THE Church Office Building of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at 28 stories tall, or 420 feet high, is often considered the second tallest building in Salt Lake City and Utah.
However, did you know that the original plans for that building called for 38 stories, not 28?
Yes, the original, more ambitious plans were for the building to rise 38 stories above North Temple Street, one story for every year that church organizer and president, Joseph Smith, lived.
However, the actual feasibility of the plumbing and heating systems caused for 10 stories to be taken out and the more modest 28 stories to come into reality.
The building was not officially dedicated until 1975, though it was in partial use by 1972.

J. Howard Dunn, who was in charge of project development for the Church's building committee, said in a 1962 Church News article that the plans were changed and eight stories were scrapped to better meet mechanical requirements of the engineering department. Heating and air conditioning for the skyscraper would best be handled in 14-story units, beginning above the first two floors. At that time, the high-rise was to be 30 stories. Later, two more stories were also eventually deleted from that plan.

The building height was reduced for two other reasons as well: First, construction began on the Granite Records Vault in Little Cottonwood Canyon in 1960 and reduced the downtown office building space needed; second, departing missionaries were to be housed elsewhere, again reducing required space.

The original building plans had called for housing space for up to 430 outgoing missionaries in the first few floors of the Church Office Building. As it turned out, missionaries were housed across the street to the north in an old school until the Missionary Training Center opened in Provo in 1978. (Missionaries were fed in the Church Office Building cafeteria in the early 1970s.)

The Church Office Building cost $31.4 million (the equivalent of about $185 million today). The new building led to the substantial widening of North Temple and State streets, too.

"The building is designed for immediate and future needs of the church," Mark B. Garff, chairman of the church building committee, told the Deseret News in 1969.

George Cannon Young designed the building, which was under design as early as 1961. The old Deseret Gymnasium, 37 E. South Temple, had to be relocated across the street to where the LDS Conference Center is now. Some LDS Business College buildings and other structures also had to be moved to make room.

Work on the three-story, underground, 1,400-space parking structure — Utah's largest building excavation at the time — began first in 1962 and was finished by about 1967. The extracted dirt, 250,000 cubic yards, provided fill material for original I-15 construction in Salt Lake County.

When completed, the Church Office Building also allowed the church to temporarily house all General Authorities there while doing a substantial remodel of the Church Administration Building, 47 E. South Temple.

"You'll remember when this (Church Office) Building was first built, this is the floor (the 18th Floor) the First Presidency occupied for several years,"  Bishop H.David Burton, Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church, recalled. "When this building was completed, the Administration Building was then torn apart and restructured as it currently is, and all the church departments formerly packed in that building like sardines were now over here or in other places, and it was time to make that truly the administrative nerve center of the church."

Bishop Burton continued: "My memory is that it was President Kimball's administration that occupied these three offices that the Presiding Bishopric now occupies, just as they were built 35 years ago. For the better part of two years, this was the home of the First Presidency."

Constructed prior to today's more stringent seismic codes, there's occasional debate of how the building would fare during a major earthquake.

"Building codes have changed some, and if we were to build this building again today, we'd build it probably the same way but probably with a little more stringent standards,"Bishop Burton said. "It's good, it's served well, it's been a great asset to the church in every way. It has been a marvelous addition to church headquarters."

The building also remains a top Utah tourist attraction, with thousands each year who enjoy the commanding, bird's-eye view from the 26th floor observation deck — some 400 feet high.

"Enjoy a magnificent view of the Wasatch mountain range on the east, the Oquirrh range to the west, and the state Capitol building (patterned after the nation's Capitol) to the north," reads a section on places to visit at lds.org. "A view from this observation deck is a great way to become oriented on your visit to Salt Lake City."

(A portion of this blog was taken from an April 1, 2010 Deseret News story, co-written by Lynn Arave, with Scott Taylor.)

The accompanying photograph shows the view from the Triad Center, looking east and the LDS Church Office Building is on the left side.
-For a source on this 38-story tall plan,
go to:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700021084/For-35-years-Church-Office-Building-has-been-symbolic-Mormon-headquarters-operational-center-for.html?pg=all

-NOTE: The author, Lynn Arave, is available to speak to groups, clubs, classes or other organizations about Utah history at no charge. He can be contacted by email at: lynnarave@comcast.net