Bills would not comment on whether the fragility of the terra cotta rules out that possibility. The architectural design of the project has not been completed, and the church estimates that design work will take a year.

Huffaker's group on Tuesday issued a statement calling on residents to voice their opinions on the planned demolition of the First Security building at the Downtown Rising Web site and on the foundation's Web site, www.utahheritagefoundation.org. Residents can also comment at an Oct. 25 meeting of the Salt Lake City Planning Commission. Elements of the plan will be considered at the meeting.

On Wednesday, Huffaker said public input is likely the group's only recourse.

"As far as we know, the LDS Church is within their private-property rights to do what they need to do to go forward with the project," he said. "We're limited in our advocacy efforts."

City permits authorizing the demolition of a building do not consider a building's historic status unless it is on the city's historic registry. The First Security building is not.

Huffaker said his group is studying how buildings nationwide have overcome functionality issues and expects to have possible alternatives to demolition to present to the Planning Commission and church planners.

He said a number of other buildings — including historic buildings in Salt Lake City — have overcome "the same sorts of issues where it's a masonry building with small floor-to-floor ceiling heights. The question was, 'What are they great for?"'

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