Salt Lake County Council

05/17/2024

Greetings Council Member,

Statement by the Utah American Institute of Architects on the Possible Renovation/Relocation/Demolition of

Abravanel Hall.

We, the board of the Utah American Institute of Architects, are pleased to hear that Mayor Jenny Wilson has
announced that she would like Abravanel Hall to remain in its present form. The community has been loud and
unified in its opposition to the possibility that the revered hall would be demolished or gutted.

As design professionals, we adamantly oppose such a move: Abravanel Hall is not a disposable building. It is not
replaceable. And it is beloved. Let us detail why we, as licensed architects, believe Abravanel Hall is a significant
Salt Lake City landmark well worthy of preservation and rehabilitation.

In 1972 then-Governor Cal Rampton proposed building a civic center including a symphony hall to celebrate the
U.S. bicentennial in 1976. This would bolster a potential Olympic bid. Voters approved a 1975 bicentennial arts
bond to help pay for it, a monumental effort of state and local government. In 1976, when the design for
Symphony (later Abravanel) Hall was commissioned, the State of Utah and City and County of Salt Lake
recognized that having a first-rate concert hall made an important statement about how Utah feels about the
arts.

Modernism plus
Architect Franklin T. Ferguson is a modernist designer, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Robert Fowler Architects was awarded the Symphony Hall commission. Ferguson, who was with Enteleke, came
to work with Fowler as design architect for Symphony Hall, spawning the creation of the highly respected firm
Fowler Ferguson Kingston and Ruben (FFKR).

The property on West Temple Street was donated to the project by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints. The building is concrete within brick, and embraces traditional minimalist features including angularity,
verticality, natural light and a connection to the outdoors. During the design phase, Ferguson stood on the site in
the back of a parked truck and looked toward the Tabernacle, which had been the symphony’s home since 1946:
“At that point, I knew the lobby of the building had to be transparent.” The hall’s dramatic 5,400-square-foot
glass facade was shipped to Utah from England. The lobby’s glass curtainwall system looks out onto Temple
Square, certainly the most historic and recognizable piece of modern architecture in Salt Lake City.

Further, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has recently invested hundreds of millions of dollars, or
more, to rehabilitate Temple Square. To have the building turn its back on Temple Square, as has been

AIA Utah T (801) 532 1727

280 S 400 W
Ste 150
Salt Lake City, UT 84101 www.aiautah.org
suggested, is both illogical and antithetical to the designer’s original intent. It would dramatically diminish the
patron experience.

Function – Acoustics First

To be clear, Symphony Hall was built for symphonic music. It is not a multi-use facility, which typically must make
compromises to one or another art form in an attempt to serve them all. Rather, it was designed for one use, and
it does so magnificently.

On conductor Maurice Abravanel’s recommendation, the owners first hired Dr. Cyril Harris – a renowned
acoustical consultant, and later, FFKR Architects, to design the hall around the symphonic music that would be
made inside it. Abravanel said, “Symphony Hall is the only one in the world where, instead of first hiring an
architect and telling him to consult an acoustician, it was the other way around.”

Everything inside the hall was tuned to produce symphonic music. There is no proscenium arch or orchestra pit
for opera, ballet, or musical theater: it is a concert hall. Although the hall is a traditional shoebox design, none of
the surfaces are parallel to each other, and there are no precise 90-degree angles in the hall. The convex curved
surfaces on the walls and the sound lock corridors are elemental parts of the system. The only fabric in the hall is
on the seats. Cellists and bassists were encouraged to make holes in the stage floor with their endpins so that
sound would resonate with the wood of the hall, not just their instruments.

Joe Rubin, Ferguson’s partner, designed a system where every audience member has an unobstructed view of
the podium. In 2004, he wrote that it was considered a “major breakthrough in the shoebox design.”

Other interior features include: six 16 x 16 foot brass and crystal chandeliers imported from Austria and (then)
Czechoslovakia, 12,000 square feet of 24 karat hand-applied Italian gold leaf, a four story lobby with white oak
and brass ceiling, and, now, of course the Dale Chihuly red blown-glass sculpture.

After the premiere concert in September 1979, New York Times music critic Donal Henahan wrote that the hall
was a “fascinating mix of solidity and glitter,” and the “sound was rich and well-blended in the middle and lower
ranges without sacrificing clarity.” 45 years later, the hall continues to be an excellent setting for Symphonic
music audiences. Utah Symphony musicians have told us that guest artists inevitably comment on how “lucky
they are to have such a hall”.

Sustainability
The science is clear: the greenest building is the one that is already built. Salt Lake City advocates for
sustainability. The most sustainable building solution is always to renovate an older building because of its
embodied energy. Simply put, it takes more energy to replace a building than to renovate one in terms of
greenhouse gas emissions (which contributes to global warming), the reduction of consumed materials and waste
in landfills.
And now:
We are eager to see the completed Master Plan to better understand the specifics of the proposed
improvements. The quoted “hundreds of millions of dollars” price tag is jaw dropping and seems out of line for
many of board and task force members who have themselves designed and renovated performing arts
centers. Certainly, all buildings need updating at some point, typically to upgrade mechanical/electrical systems,
user deficiencies or simply to remedy wear and tear. Can the building be improved? Of course, it can! The HVAC
system must be rescued. New technology can be integrated. Even the acoustics can be tweaked to help musicians
hear better on stage. Many things are possible, but not everything is necessary. For example, ADA
enhancements may be necessary, but an existing structure does not follow the same guidelines as new
construction. A greatly expanded lobby might not be the choice that is historically appropriate. We are confident
that despite higher construction costs, a renovated concert hall will be less expensive than building new.

Abravanel Hall is a modern landmark, an iconic Salt Lake structure that will be an historic landmark within five
years. Renovations of historic buildings must be undertaken with great care not to destroy the defining fabric of
the building, and in this case is an instrument itself when symphonic music is played. Most importantly it should
be preserved for the musicians and their audiences, and to recognize the heritage of this important piece of Salt
Lake’s built environment.