Salt Lake Assembly Hall - Design

Design

The Salt Lake Assembly Hall is a Victorian Gothic congregation hall. Rough granite walls are laid out in cruciform style making the hall's exterior look like a small gothic cathedral. Twenty-four spires mark the perimeter of the building's footprint and a tower rises from the intersection of the floor plan's apparent crucifix. The cruciform layout is complemented by Stars of David circumscribed high above each entrance. These symbolize an LDS perception that they are a re-gathering of Biblical Tribes of Israel.

However, the deceptively gothic exterior conceals a more modern interior lacking vaulted ceilings.

Although built of quartz monzonite rock from the same quarry as the Salt Lake City Temple, the Assembly Hall's unhewn exterior looks much different. The stones for the Assembly Hall were not cut as exactingly as the Temple's. This accounts for the building's dark, rough texture and the broader masonry joints between stones.

Seagull Monument sits directly in front of the building to the east.

Read more about this topic:  Salt Lake Assembly Hall

Famous quotes containing the word design:

    The reason American cars don’t sell anymore is that they have forgotten how to design the American Dream. What does it matter if you buy a car today or six months from now, because cars are not beautiful. That’s why the American auto industry is in trouble: no design, no desire.
    Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1938)

    Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance. There is as much secrecy about the cooking as if he had a design to poison you.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Teaching is the perpetual end and office of all things. Teaching, instruction is the main design that shines through the sky and earth.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)