Trib Article Re: Movement to "Save" the Provo Temple

[Vanguard]

1 hour ago, blackstrap said:

If you have ever dealt with a four year old's question why? you will be aware that any answer is always followed by another WHY? question and then another. 😜

I chuckled at this because it's more how I would describe my '16 yros going on 20" caboose. She seeks to pull her mother and I into extended exchanges in order to mine for material that would help her get her way. In other words, so many of these exchanges with our adolescent is not about the exchange of information for the purpose of finding truth but rather an attempt on her part to find a kink in our argument so that she can ultimately do what it was she wanted to do all along. And she gets her way most of the time! ; ) 

[bluebell]

2 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

Question - are we done with Moroni statues?

Looking at renderings of temples under construction and he's very absent.  Lot's of spires and domes.

The Layton temple is still under construction and it has a Moroni statue. But lots don’t. 

[JLHPROF]

5 minutes ago, bluebell said:

The Layton temple is still under construction and it has a Moroni statue. But lots don’t. 

Well they're not required but I was just curious if anything had been said about their reduction in use.

Some of the smaller temples are much less recognizable as temples without them, looking like fancy stake centers.  (Obviously the bigger ornate temples are still recognizable without them).  This one looks so much like a traditional Church house.

Very excited to tour the Taylorsville one next year - below (and of course the Manti renovation which I'm praying is as nice as St. George).

 

[bluebell]

2 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

Well they're not required but I was just curious if anything had been said about their reduction in use.

Some of the smaller temples are much less recognizable as temples without them, looking like fancy stake centers.  (Obviously the bigger ornate temples are still recognizable without them).  This one looks so much like a traditional Church house.

Very excited to tour the Taylorsville one next year - below (and of course the Manti renovation which I'm praying is as nice as St. George).

 

I'm not a fan of the Taylorsville model.  It's so blocky and the spire looks more like a bell tower.  For the longest time I would drive by the construction and wonder what it was going to be because it didn't look like a temple at all.  It looks like a Catholic church to me.  I don't really like the style of the small temples they are making right now either because the spires are also a little weird looking to me (and don't fit the rest of the building).  

But please lets not do anymore like the Boise and Portland temples.  Those look like stake centers to me 100%.

(Not that what I think about the designs matters at all, or should matter.)

[Craig Speechly]

I was married in the Ogden Temple, both the Ogden and Prove Temples were designed by my Stake President Keith Wilcox, who also designed the Washington DC Temple and who later served as Ogden's president.  My Bishop later became a member of the Temple Presidency also. I've never understood what was wrong with the old design, yes it was ultra modern, but it was also unique.  I was disappointed to see the church demolish and rebuild the Ogden Temple into its current cookie cutter once size fits all design, but then they never asked for my opinion. 🙂   

 

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by Craig Speechly

[webbles]

7 minutes ago, Craig Speechly said:

I was married in the Ogden Temple, both the Ogden and Prove Temples were designed by my Stake President Keith Wilcox, who also designed the Washington DC Temple and who later served as Ogden's president.  My Bishop later became a member of the Temple Presidency also. I've never understood what was wrong with the old design, yes it was ultra modern, but it was also unique.  I was disappointed to see the church demolish and rebuild the Ogden Temple into its current cookie cutter once size fits all design, but then they never asked for my opinion. 🙂   

 

 

I thought Emil B. Fetzer was the designer of the Ogden and Provo Temples.  Was Keith Wilcox involved with him or is the internet wrong on who the designer was?

Another interesting thing about Emil Fetzer is he was also the one behind the gutting and reworking of the Logan Temple.  A lot of Cache Valley residents were not (and still not happy) with what he did to the Logan Temple, though I'm not sure what could be done since the original Logan Temple interior was difficult to incorporate accessibility (http://ldspioneerarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/07/logan-temple-interior-renovation-and.html has a bunch of pictures of the old interior, floor plan, and renovation).

[Tacenda]

8 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

Well they're not required but I was just curious if anything had been said about their reduction in use.

Some of the smaller temples are much less recognizable as temples without them, looking like fancy stake centers.  (Obviously the bigger ornate temples are still recognizable without them).  This one looks so much like a traditional Church house.

Very excited to tour the Taylorsville one next year - below (and of course the Manti renovation which I'm praying is as nice as St. George).

 

I like them without the angel Moroni, just the steeple. 

[Craig Speechly]

9 hours ago, webbles said:

I thought Emil B. Fetzer was the designer of the Ogden and Provo Temples.  Was Keith Wilcox involved with him or is the internet wrong on who the designer was?

Another interesting thing about Emil Fetzer is he was also the one behind the gutting and reworking of the Logan Temple.  A lot of Cache Valley residents were not (and still not happy) with what he did to the Logan Temple, though I'm not sure what could be done since the original Logan Temple interior was difficult to incorporate accessibility (http://ldspioneerarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/07/logan-temple-interior-renovation-and.html has a bunch of pictures of the old interior, floor plan, and renovation).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_W._Wilcox

[webbles]

5 hours ago, Craig Speechly said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_W._Wilcox

Yeah, I had checked that.  It doesn't mention him designing the Provo or Ogden temple, just the Washington, DC temple.  Just wondering if you knew differently that could change that?

[Duncan]

It would be worthwhile to know that Keith Wilcox was a partner with Emil B. Fetzer and two others partners named Beecher and Markham, to form Markham Beecher Fetzer and Wilcox Inc. Architects. So, I suspect that Fetzer was the lead architect  on the Provo and Ogden temples, plus the Washington DC Temples, Keith Wilcox was also involved in their designs

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Duncan

[Craig Speechly]

On 12/20/2023 at 7:20 AM, webbles said:

Yeah, I had checked that.  It doesn't mention him designing the Provo or Ogden temple, just the Washington, DC temple.  Just wondering if you knew differently that could change that?

I could be mistaken.  Wiki tends to be fairly accurate...but that was my understanding

[Craig Speechly]

On 12/20/2023 at 7:20 AM, webbles said:

Yeah, I had checked that.  It doesn't mention him designing the Provo or Ogden temple, just the Washington, DC temple.  Just wondering if you knew differently that could change that?

So I did find his obit in the Church news.  It does identify hims as the architect for the Washington DC temple but does not mention the Ogden Temple

 

https://www.thechurchnews.com/2011/12/17/23226040/elder-keith-w-wilcox-dies-at-age-90

[Calm]

On 12/18/2023 at 2:03 PM, smac97 said:

The intended symbolism has already been diminished by painting the temple's spire white, where it was originally an orange "pillar of fire"-style color:

Just an FYI I just came across…

Likely there was no intended symbolism by the temple architect who was a modernist and did not believe in symbolism (or preservation or actual windows…)

https://photogent.com/thoughts-on-the-provo-temple-renovation/

Quote

I have researched the Provo/Ogden symbolism with the staff of the Church History Library assisting. We found NOTHING that indicates Fetzer ever thought anything of the style being representative of anything at all. There has been no indication the symbolism was intentional. 

On the other hand…. 

I was able to track down one individual who interviewed Fetzer before he passed away. When she mentioned she liked the two pillar symbolism of the Provo Temple design, he apparently had little patience for the idea himself, and said that it was not his intention for the design to symbolize that.