The Church Office Building cost $31.4 million (the equivalent of about $185 million today). (Missionaries were fed in the Church Office Building cafeteria in the early 1970s.) 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. 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. 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. Later, two more stories were also eventually deleted from that plan. At that time, the high-rise was to be 30 stories. Heating and air conditioning for the skyscraper would best be handled in 14-story units, beginning above the first two floors. Howard Dunn, who was in charge of project development for the LDS 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. So what happened to the additional 10 stories? The 38 floors didn't materialize - for a variety of reasons - or the building would have soared more than 500 feet high. The opportunity of bringing together the operational aspects of the church into a single place brought a lot of synergism, a lot of efficiency - and it also brought a togetherness not formerly possible with people so spread out, particularly the General Authorities.'Īlthough the Joseph Smith Memorial Building directly honors the first president of the church, the Church Office Building was originally envisioned to do so too - with a planned 38 floors, to commemorate the 38 years of Joseph Smith's life. I don't know if there are very many people around who could remember that period of time, but church entities were spread to virtually all four corners of this city - spread out and housed in 20 to 30 different locations. 'It has served well, indeed,' Bishop Burton said. The towering, 420-foot-high building, which houses the administrative support staff for the LDS Church, turns 35 on July 24, having been dedicated in 1975, though it was in partial use by 1972.

What has happened in the 35 years since has been a miracle.'

More than any other single thing, that established the international aspect of the church - here was the spot from which the church would go forward around the world. 'You certainly see most prominently the lovely Capitol building and some of the buildings downtown, but this building is very visible and very symbolic, that this is the international headquarters of the church. 'What do you see when you come into the valley?' he said. David Burton, presiding bishop of the church, said in a recent interview with the Deseret News. 'The Church Office Building has served very, very well for 35 years as kind of a symbol of church headquarters,' Bishop H. The mountainous, 28-story Church Office Building soars above North Temple Street, where it has been the nerve center for the tremendous growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the nearly 35 years since its dedication. SALT LAKE CITY - It's a symbol of church headquarters, and to church leaders it's even a miracle maker.

Inside lds office building pictures