Symphony Center in Salt Lake City a special place

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When Scott, one of my friends, said that he had been an engineer on the building of Symphony Center in Salt Lake City, I told my sister-in-law, Barb, in Utah. She, in turn, sent me a number of articles pertaining to that. I sent an E-mail to her son, my nephew Nate, who had worked in that building for quotes for this article.

Scott was the project manager for all the mechanical systems/engineer on the project and told me that they had to interface with the building’s design because of the resulting acoustics. In the end, someone could be in the upper balcony and talk to someone standing on the stage and they would hear one another perfectly. It contains European style seating. “It is a real beauty,” Scott said. He knew that the gold leaf that O.C. Tanner had ordered came in 3½ by 3½ squares and had to be applied by special brushes.

It was in 2003 that Obert Clark Tanner, who had been in business since 1927, acquired the Hansen Planetarium building. Listed on the National Register of Historic Place in 1979, the building was previously used as the Salt Lake City library until the 1960s, when it was renovated to become Hansen Planetarium. Following that purchase, O.C. Tanner renovated the building to serve as a new company jewelry store. That new shop opened in 2009.

O.C. had ordered gold leaf for the Symphony Hall from Europe. His jewelry store sells and now repairs Rolex watches. His store sells high-priced awards for employees of upscale corporations.

The Symphony Center took three years to build the $12 Million hall. It seats 2,811. Abravanel Hall is home to the Utah Symphony and is part of the Salt Lake Country Center for the Arts. The hall is an architectural landmark in the city and is adjacent to Temple Square. This information is from the Salt Lake Tribune archives.

My nephew, Nate, WOSTEP-certified, is a Rolex-trained watchmaker there. He works at the Clark Planetarium building. He has polished a platinum Rolex watch valued at $70,000 for Olympian Apolo Anton Ohno. He has serviced watches for the Utah Jazz and Utah Real athletes. He met rocker Stephen Tyler who was “super lovable and considerate. He made it a point to give everyone in the store a little attention, hugged two lucky fans” and gave Nate a thumbs up. He met Robin Williams who seemed “super depressive.” Don’t you think Nate has the most wonderful job? He and his beautiful wife Jessica expect a new baby in 2021.

The 45th Season of the Salt Lake Symphony has begun. Due to the uncertain times, some concerts will be held in some of Utah’s great natural places or at a park for a social-distanced picnic event. Each event will be noted on its webpage four-to-six weeks prior to the event. Music is too important to our society and emotional health to be gone for long. Exciting times are ahead.

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