John Williams implores Utah to save concert hall
OrchestrasThe Hollywood composer has issued a heartfelt plea to Salt Lake City to preserve Maurice Abravanel Hall from demolition:
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
I knew Maurice Abravanel, whom I admired greatly both as a person and as an artist, and I’ve been privileged on many occasions to conduct in his namesake concert hall in Salt Lake City, where I recorded my musical theme for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games with the Utah Symphony and your magnificent Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and where I conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra on several visits to your great city.
Abravanel Hall, with its elegant design and splendid acoustics, is a crown jewel in the cultural life of Salt Lake City. It is the home of the Utah Symphony, unquestionably one of our country’s finest orchestras. And it is an iconic landmark of which all your fellow citizens can and should be justly proud. It must be preserved for future generations to enjoy.
In our fast-moving technological age, great music performed by world-class orchestras before live audiences is a vital thread that binds us to our cultural past and to our collective future. This simply wouldn’t be possible without temples of music like Abravanel Hall. I urge you to preserve and protect this artistic treasure.
More than 45,000 people have signed a petition to save the hall.
While it’s just crazy to tear down a hall that’s only 45-years old, it’s equally crazy that it will cost $200 to $300 million to renovate, and that those renovations include some critical issues, such as replacing the HVAC system, updating the fire suppression system, complying with the ADA, and making the building earth quake resistant.
If the renovation is going to cost significantly more than a new building, then I believe they have an obligation to close the gap with philanthropic dollars.
I’m not conversant with the state of things in Salt Lake City, but an earlier item on this website made no mention of renovation of the existing hall, or of its planned replacement, saying instead that the hall is to be demolished so that its land can be used for a sports arena.
https://slippedisc.com/2024/05/symphony-hall-is-threatened-with-wrecking-ball/
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2024/05/18/abravanel-hall-rehab-cost-more/
There have been other articles about how the renovation could climb higher.
My understanding of the situation is that when they originally announced the plan to create a new entertainment district, the plan was to demolish the concert hall and not much said was about the costly needed renovations as well as what the replacement would be. But I’m not a local so I’ll defer to them.
I’d be really skeptical if powers that be wanted to demolish a concert hall before they had any plans to replace it.
This has all been done behind closed doors so it’s difficult to know the plans, but it seems that originally they were going to demolish the concert hall and build a new one a few blocks away on a lot where they had recently demolished another historic theatre. The community got wind of the plans (mostly from a comment made by a county council member) and there was a petition to save the building.
The county has backpedaled and now say that the concert hall will stay where it is, but they also started a PR campaign to explode the costs of renovating the building, mostly for things like HVAC, seismic upgrades, ADA accessibility, etc. to try and get public support to tear it down and build something new that will fit in with the vision of the entertainment district for the basketball/hockey arena. They have not committed to keeping the venue—just the location.
The plan was to build a hockey stadium.
If there’s one place in the world with money to burn, it’s the Bible Belt.