Mormon Tabernacle reopens after renovations, seismic upgrade

The Mormon Tabernacle is famous for its "you can hear a pin drop" acoustics, which missionaries show off on visitor tours by literally dropping a pin.

But for the past two years the only sound inside the home of The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been the pounding of hammers and nails as workers did renovation and seismic upgrade work.

Gordon B. Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was expected to reopen the building Saturday with a rededication ceremony during the faith's annual spring conference.

Mormons gather twice a year — in April and October — to hear inspirational words from church leaders.

Beginning in 1867, Latter-day Saints held those meetings in the 10,000-seat Tabernacle, moving in 1999 to a new 21,000-seat state-of-the-art conference center across the street.

The Tabernacle stands as a testament to faith and community, church elder Marlin K. Jensen said Friday during a tour for the news media.

"Until the day they removed the scaffolding, half the people at least thought this whole thing would fall down," said Elder Jensen, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.

Thanks to Elder Jensen's great-great grandfather Henry Grow , it didn't.

A bridge builder, Grow is credited with the vision that married designs for bridge trusses to the building's construction that allows the Tabernacle's 150-foot wide roof to arch over its interior without needing support.

"It's really an engineering marvel," renovation architect Roger Jackson of FFKR Architects said. "They built it to last and they built it the absolute best that they could. That was our charge to, to do (renovation) well and to keep this building so that it could be used. It's not a museum piece in a glass box."

The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 and in 1971 was recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers as an engineering milestone.

In the heart of downtown, the Tabernacle and its neighbor the Salt Lake Temple make up the central features of the church's Temple Square. The square and its surrounding three-block campus is Utah's most-visited attraction, drawing between 3 million and 5 million visitors annually, according to state and church statistics.

By comparison, in 2005, the state's five national parks combined drew only 5 million, the state Office of Tourism said.