https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900066500/salt-lake-temple-square-closing-lds-mormon.html

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SALT LAKE CITY — One of America's iconic landmarks, the Salt Lake Temple, will close for renovations and seismic strengthening at the end of the year as part of a four-year project the will remake the center square of the city, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Friday.

The temple will be closed effective December 29, President Russell M. Nelson said during a morning news conference on Temple Square. He said work on the Salt Lake Temple will honor Brigham Young's original vision and actually restore some of the original features inside and around the temple.

Seismic strengthening?

Where's their faith?

elderolddog Wrote:
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> Seismic strengthening?
>
> Where's their faith?

Ha! Brilliant!

Yep. That's going to cost a lot of widow's mites.

They are planning on digging underneath the entire temple and building a seismic structure beneath the existing temple. Go back and look at what that foundation looked like.

This is guna cost.

They're also demolishing both visitor centers and building new ones. No doubt with revised church history displays.

Revising the temple patron entrance makes sense ... it always seemed sort of awkward the way they squeezed them in there along the side, dodging crowds at the plaza. Now official patrons will be able to avoid being bothered by gawkers.

This is gonna be THE big church event of '24. Open house should be fun!

"The temple is expected to reopen in 2024 when guests will be invited to tour the interior during an open house. The project will address seismic issues by creating a base isolation system for the temple foundation. Obsolete systems will be replaced inside the building, and the interior will be refreshed while preserving its historic details.

The existing annex and north-side addition (built in the 1960s) will be demolished and replaced. The South Visitors’ Center will also be replaced with two guest and visitor pavilions. In the future, the temple will be accessible through a patron tunnel from the Conference Center parking facility or from entry pavilions located on the north side of the temple to a grand hall connecting to the recommend desk area featuring large skylights with generous views of the temple."

ldschurchtemples.com

Wife and I got married there. Hearing about this makes me think I should plan to visit during the open house, since I won't get (or choose to go) in otherwise at this stage in my disbelief.

It would look a little strange if the temple was wrecked by an "act of god". So this makes sense for future proofing the corporation. A bit like lightning rods on steeples kind of thing. But Mormon heavenly father forbid if this resulted in another Notre Dame disaster.

three words following Notre Dame: Fire Suppression system.


'If it was me, HA HA'... I wouldn't close the building until the plans have been finalized / approved and the bids are solid.


No Point in denying people access until the actual work is ready to begin, 'eh?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2019 06:59PM by GNPE.

Sometime in the mid 60's, churchco built new annex thing at the SL temple. My dad worked for the company who was doing it. He worked on the heating part of it, and I think it was the section that opened up into the new visitors center.

A while back on RfM, I shared a photo of an original stone that had a hole and a wooden peg in, one of several that were unearthed. The foreman (or whoever) said it was OK to take them home and he had it for years...my brother ended up with it.

After my dad got it, he was asked to give a talk in church a few times, not always in our stake and he wasn't a person who liked speaking. But he did it anyway because church.

After today’s announcement it does not seem like church is hurting for money so why are we cleaning chapels? I hardly know anyone in ward they hardly know me. I know that it is a text sent to the folks that have been assigned this weeks cleaning schedule but still it ticks me off.

SEcular Priest Wrote:
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> After today’s announcement it does not seem like
> church is hurting for money so why are we cleaning
> chapels?

The church has no problems paying for security to monitor their temples to catch fake members trying to sneak in, but they won't pay for professional cleaners.

COMTROL.

Nothing screams MORMON more than that temple. I am surprised that he isn't going to build a new Salt Lake temple in his image. I think that he's missing a big opportunity to display his finest ego.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2019 08:37PM by messygoop.

Sadly, we may have to say good-bye to all those mystical markings on the temple walls.

The contractors will likely grind them off with machines. We'll have no more tell-tale symbolic evidence of the Mormon cult's direct descent from Freemasonry.

They'll help to put that secret society, the Mother of Mormonism, down the memory hole.

The new Emerald City castle will be clean of all those occult symbols linking them to that bloody Brotherhood.

Save those photos from Utah Lighthouse Ministry.

I wouldn't be surprised is they disappear.

surcharge on tithing so not a dilution of their balance sheet?

I don't see the "upside" or profit on this plan. Unlike with a new temple, they already own this property and are getting whatever publicity benefit they can pull out of it already. I don't see how tearing down and rebuilding the visitors centers will do much.

The public open house will bring in thousands of curiosity seekers but it's in the middle of Mormon ground zero so it'll bring in a lot of people who are already members or know all about the church already, I doubt that a lot of people will fly in to SLC from a long distance just for the open house. Not to mention balancing that p.r. benefit five years from now with having the entire plaza shut down for that length of time.

If it were just some necessary retrofitting you'd think that could have been done without all the other work in addition. Maybe just a way to funnel a lot of money to church construction companies?

They are going to tear down most (all?) of the wall around Temple Sq and replace it with wrought iron fence so the square will be visible from the street. The entry gates and side facing Main Street Plaza are already iron fence. The current visitor centers would just be blank walls backing up to the fence, which would be pretty ugly.

Plus I bet the word "Mormon" disappears from most or all of the visitor center displays.

The big expense will be the seismic upgrade of the temple foundation. I wonder if the Tabernacle and Assembly Hall will or have had similar foundation upgrades.

The tabernacle already got its seismic lift a few years ago. That's when the basement below was completely redone, as well as a new roof, a permanent stage for orchestra, spacing the pews further apart to provide more leg room (therefore smaller crowd capacity), new insulated windows and a new HVAC system. The organ was cleaned and all the façade pipes were given new gold leafing.

The assembly hall got a re-do around 1980 for the 150 anniversary of TSCC, and local members had to raise the funds for the 60 rank Sipe pipe organ (very nice baroque specification). I don't remember anything about a seismic re-do. It did have all the gothic wooden spires re-done with ones made of fiberglass to hold up in nasty weather conditions.

"We want (visitors) to think of Salt Lake just as easily as they think of Jerusalem or the Vatican as a place where Christianity really has its heart," said Bishop Dean M. Davies, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric.


Good luck with that.

Nobody but Mormons will ever put Salt Lake City on the same level as Jerusalem or the Vatican.

Mormon self-importance on display.

The City Creek Mall looks better than the temple ever will, no matter what they do to it.

And you spend less money there.

They certainly sell better undies. :)

Get a deal with ChurchCo to gather temple debris then resell it to the sheeple as 'momentos' of the pioneer days...

just an idea? Time will tell!

The wedding guest area is being improved. It will have picture windows with a full view of the temple, updated bathrooms, and a theater/lecture area, where waiting guests can learn more about the Global Christian Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There will be a kiosk, where missionaries can answer questions about the Global Christian Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The guest experience will be like unto visiting waiting rooms and bathrooms in Jerusalem or the Vatican

Just think, how many tithe payers in third world countries will never see any of this renovation while Rusty Nelson looks down on it from his penthouse apartment across the street being fed three square meals prepared by his Mormon servants with all the penthouse utility bills paid for by these same tithe payers?

They will probably post guards at the entrance to the Patron Tunnel, to keep out the "unworthies" and skateboarders.

I haven't been to the SLC visitor's center in years--but I'm curious if they still have those wall murals of JS and the Golden Plates? There's a picture of JS using the Urine Thumb to translate.

LOL, instead of discreetly scraping off the murals in the middle of the night, they need to destroy the whole building, as a diversion. Wouldn't it be great if they replaced that whole JS display with a Jesus display.

The Mormon temple will be on my bucket list, for sure:

Paris and The Louvre
St. Peter's and the Vatican
The Colosseum
Pyramids of Giza
The Great Wall of China
Taj Mahal
The Salt Lake temple

This is really a great use of money in case of an earthquake. After all no one needs anything after an earthquake as long as the temple is still standing.

Water, food, a place to sleep, nothing compared to a place to learn how secret handshakes and passwords to get into a fairy-tell heaven.

Mormons sure do have an MO, they have taken that whole whited sepulcher parable and run with it.

that tithing money must be laundered.

Renovation means another round of full public tours before re-dedication. Tons of free publicity without having to build a new Temple.

While the temple is closed, where will Russ and Jesus have their weekly meetings?

CrispingPin Wrote:
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> While the temple is closed, where will Russ and
> Jesus have their weekly meetings?

Apparently, he's more concerned about Rusty's bedroom than a proper meeting in his holy house.

Lots of sarcasm.

Which brings to mind the question, do you think they'll publish pictures of the new and improved "Holy of Holies"?

I am certain they wouldn't include it on the tours due to size of room/accessibility would bottle neck the tours, but they could publish pics. There is precedent, since they already did WAAAAY back in the day.

“During the closure, administrative meetings currently held by Church leaders in the temple—including the weekly meeting of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—will then be held in designated areas of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.”

https://www.lds.org/church/news/president-nelson-outlines-plans-for-salt-lake-temple-during-its-four-year-closure-for-renovation?lang=eng

Do they charge money for open house ? They’d be bringing in the dough then.
I thought it’d be a risk , letting non members see it and possible backlash. You can tell how expensive all of this is, and the church putting money in these contraptions, instead of putting it to good use.
Now we know why they’re scraping everything from the church, the money is going here and to the DC temple. At least the DC temple isn’t ugly, but a waste of money ? Biv time!

Yes, a billionaire will be paying for it. His name is Russell Nelson. As the president of the Corporation of the President of the CoJCoLDS, he owns the church and all its assets.

You know, when you put it that way, it doesn't bother me.

It's the truth, mind you, but the perception that it's a church - that's what bothers me now. The way you framed it is just fine by me, billionaires do what billionaires do. If I had the money, I'd do some crazy shit too.

Will there be open shafts that have no purpose until someone invents the elevator ?

The public tours will be like opening up a new amusement park and making all of the rides be free for the first few weeks. It's a recruiting mechanism. Once the free samples are gone you have to start paying if you want more.

So they take away the death threats, renovate the building, and start talking more about Jesus. They should call it "The New and Improved Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints", or Maybe "LDS 2.0". Either way, it's still a cult.

that this was the First Presidency's idea.

Translated: Russ and his lighted pen.

I always thought temple square was really a good site. I guess Russ went to Rome and saw the Pope and what he had. He came back and said I want something just as good or better. This is a lot of money for what?

I can understand making the temple earthquake proof. But were we not told when it was built it would last a thousand years. Now with the rebuild, we are only going to get an additional 150 years. So what happened to the thousand years?

azsteve Wrote:
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> The public tours will be like opening up a new
> amusement park and making all of the rides be free
> for the first few weeks. It's a recruiting
> mechanism. Once the free samples are gone you have
> to start paying if you want more."

Yes this has been the strategy with new temples and open houses for a long time. Maybe it used to work but not so much any more.

People will still visit the open house out of curiosity and because it's a rare opportunity to see the inside but I suspect very few people will be inspired enough to want to go through all the trouble of joining and following all the rules and requirements and paying 10% of their income for the dubious privilege of going through a dubious ceremony over and over again.

Of course, during the open house you don't even get to see any hint of what the endowment ceremony might look like. And now I'm starting to wonder if they're going to get rid of the live endowment and replace it with the filmed version like they have at almost every other temple ... ?

I think most of the visitors that the Salt Lake open house will appeal to will be current members who aren't yet temple worthy. They already paid the sunk costs to be members, are familiar with the basic ideas, but have that one extra step to make to get temple ready by coughing up that 10%. I also think the open house will be preceded by months of harangues from the local pulpits along these lines.

Interesting that they had foundation problems with the temple from the beginning and had to re-do part of it ... another failure of revelation they don't like to talk about.


"Sandstone was originally used for the foundation. During the Utah War, the foundation was buried and the lot made to look like a plowed field to prevent unwanted attention from federal troops. After tensions had eased in 1858 and work on the temple resumed, it was discovered that many of the foundation stones had cracked, making them unsuitable for use. Although not all of the sandstone was replaced, the inadequate sandstone was replaced."

(Wiki)

I heard it was $443,000,000 to build the conference center. That was a huge project requiring demolition of the Deseret Gym. Extensive prep of lot and construction of a large building requiring trusses from Europe and stone to be quarried in Utah and cut in Idaho and shipped back to the building site.

The Salt Lake temple project will be extensive. It won't be cheap placing the seismic isolators but that kind of work was done on the Utah state capital. Putting isolators under the capitol and doing other renovations cost $260,000,000. I would be surprises to see the costs of renovating the Salt Lake Temple and installing the isolators be over $500,000,000.

What happens to Temple Square Missionaries?

thegame2017 Wrote:
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> What happens to Temple Square Missionaries?

Maybe they will be reassigned to other church historical sites

Where BY took his first dump in Ut before declaring "This smells like shit"

^^^ That’s what I was wondering.

The Wasatch fault (which is considered to be still active) runs along the base of the mountains east of SLC. Even more significant, the Warm Springs fault extends a couple of blocks west of Temple Square.

Most mountain ranges in Utah are bordered by faults. Salt Lake valley consists of unconsolidated sediments which in the words of my former geology professor would shake like jello in the event of an earthquake. The earthquake risk in Utah is very real and has nothing to do with fracking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasatch_Fault

https://utahearthquakesafety.org/what-should-i-know/what-is-utahs-earthquake-risk/

This is a silly response grounded in fact, at least all the news broadcasts seem to have bought it: SoCal gets a earthquake every three seconds.

What's the Oklahoma rate?

Oklahoma isn't getting the big ones that California did, but when fracking started several years ago tremors went through the roof. The rate has fallen over two/three weeks but there is an obvious correlation. In some places at certain times, the rate exceeded California.

USGS admitting high rate but denies fracking connection
https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/oklahoma-now-has-more-earthquakes-a-regular-basis-california-are-they-due-fracking?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products

http://time.com/4271194/oil-drilling-earthquake-crisis-oklahoma/

http://time.com/4273258/usgs-earthquake-map-oklahoma/

https://blogs.platts.com/2017/03/03/oklahoma-earthquakes-cushing-oil/

Interesting. The OK earthquakes are bigger than I realized, but still, not 6s and 7s by any stretch. Also, this is basically a problem unique to OK. The numbers 1 and 2 oil producers in the US, TX and ND respectively, are not having the same earthquake problems.

The original question in this subthread was "why the sudden interest in earthquakes?" It is by no means sudden. It was well known from the mid 1800s that the Wasatch Front was an active earthquake zone. Over the decades we have learned more about the damage earthquakes can do to buildings, and more about how to mitigate it. It is a matter if when, not if.

BTW, just last week, a roughly 100 year old single story brick masonry house in Sugarhouse, was undergoing major renovation, and it started to lean, then just totally collapsed. It looks like an inexperienced contractor did not put sufficient reinforcing in the building when tearing out walls and stuff. Oops.

Unreinforced masonry houses like that are very common in Sugarhouse and in the Avenues. When an earthquake hits those areas, there are going to be a lot of collapsed houses. Wood frame houses may sustain a lot of damage, but they almost certainly will remain standing.

Good time for sinning. You can be sure Jesus won't return for at least another 4 years.

His temple won't be ready!

A hard core TBM opined online that the Big Quake will hit Central Utah some time after the 12/29/2019 closing date of the temple, giving just enough time to clear the building of whatever precious artifacts need to be squirreled away up Cottonwood Canyon.

You've been warned!

That's funny! The only ancient artifacts I'm aware of in the SL Temple are the patrons, especially the Q15, and a bunch of ancient farts trapped in the cushions.

So-so artwork and expensive bland upholstered chairs do not qualify as precious artifacts. Anything really precious is either in the Church Administration Building (44 E S Temple), the Church Office Building (50 E N Temple), or already up in the Granite Vaults ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granite_Mountain_(Utah) ).

Maybe the church with its treasure sniffing profit has determined that the temple is sitting on a buried treasure.

They will milk the money laundering to friends and family as much as possible.

"It's bidness!"
--Judic West, Capo de Guitar City