| Civil engineer Henry Grow designed the Mormon tabernacle in Salt Lake City, completed in 1867 after four years of construction. It stands next to the temple and conference center at Temple Square.
The domed roof stretches 150 ft by 250 ft. It uses a four-layer truss system that is 9 ft thick, with triangular lattices between the layers and between the trusses. The members are held together with dowels, pegs, and wedges. It is clad with aluminum sheathing on the roof and cattle hair-strengthened plaster on the ceiling. The 44 piers that meet the trusses and the entire foundation is sandstone. This remarkable and unique structure opens a vast interior space that seats 7,000, originally 8,000. |
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The acoustics are famous, as the drop of a pin can be heard clear across the 250 ft hall. The tabernacle is known as the most acoustically perfect building in the world, built in a time before computers could engineer optimal acoustics. The unimpeded dome allows unbroken waves of sound to transfer. The elliptical shape reverberates noise from the pulpit loudly, without the help of electronics.
