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SALT LAKE CITY — While the Salt Lake Temple and other buildings along Temple Square remain closed for renovation, one element of the massive multiyear project continues to draw in visitors from throughout the city and the world.
The remodeled Main Street and Church Office Building plazas, a large section of the open space east of the temple that — in some parts — had been closed since 2021, reopened in January to much fanfare from visitors.
"It's so vibrant. It's just alive," said Christian Meriles, in a video that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints posted.
Church officials announced Friday that most of Temple Square's plazas are complete. Transforming the spaces relied heavily on a machine and a unique product that the Utah Department of Transportation has relied on heavily in recent transportation projects.
The Temple Square project has centered mostly around renovating and retrofitting the historic Salt Lake Temple to make it seismically sound. However, the church included the Main Street Plaza because of its issues, as well.
The membrane covering the plaza's top decks, added in the 1970s, had started leaking down onto the roof of the parking garage, creating a hazard.
Repairing the massive plaza was expected to expand the timeline of the project, especially if it had to be done by hand, said Paul Shingleton, the plaza project manager for Jacobsen Construction. That was before the company learned about a "robot" that could cut the work down by a year.
Crews installed a radiant heating system on top of the concrete roof after it and the waterproofing was completed. It helps melt snow and ice along the plaza during the wintertime, reducing buildup and damage by snow removal equipment.
The focus turned to landscaping once that process wrapped up. The new plaza is centered around an ellipse that required constant checking of mathematical equations to make sure that the plaza was designed correctly, according to Adam Hicken, project general manager for R.J. Masonry.
The team used 20,000 to 30,000 square feet of wall cladding in the project and many of the landscape's walls were designed to serve as unofficial benches for people to sit and enjoy the plaza's aesthetic. Rock from the same quarry as the Salt Lake Temple was used to form a monument stone within the plaza, which is engraved with a passage from the Old Testament.
Most of the landscape features were formed with the help of geofoam, which reduced the need for soil in the project. UDOT has relied on it for many of its recent projects that involve narrow spaces, including a recent connection between I-15 and the West Davis Highway.
Some of the trees now standing in the plaza were brought in from an Oregon farm that had "essentially been abandoned," said Jay Warnick, ground services manager for Church Headquarters Facilities. The trees have become an anchor of the landscaping visible today.
"We were able to bring in more trees and utilize trees and other plant material to also improve the experience," he said. "It's an oasis from the storms of the noise and chaos."
The full Temple Square project is still a ways from completion, but more progress was reported on Friday. Construction crews have successfully transferred the load of the Salt Lake Temple to its new seismic foundation, completing a major step in its renovation.
Stone cladding has also been added to the pavilion buildings being constructed near the temple.
Church officials say the full project is expected to be completed by 2026.
