When the renovation was announced on April 19, 2019, the Church stated that the Salt Lake Temple would close on December 29, 2019, and remain closed for approximately four years, with an expected reopening in 2024. The project began primarily as an earthquake-proofing effort. Ordinance workers were told that the live endowment sessions would continue after the renovation.
However, since then, everything has changed. It is no longer the Salt Lake Temple I remember. The project is now more than three years behind its original schedule.
The floor plan has been heavily rearranged. The grand staircase connecting the first and second floors has been removed. The original progressive rooms and their hand-painted murals were removed or heavily reconfigured. The original baptismal font has been relocated from within the Salt Lake Temple foundation to the new north addition outside the historic temple structure. The live, room-to-room progressive endowment has been discontinued and replaced by stationary single-room film presentations.
Patrons no longer move from room to room during the endowment—Creation Room → Garden Room → World Room → Terrestrial Room → through the veil into the Celestial Room. Many of the 22 sealing rooms are now located underground in the north addition (especially on lower level 2, alongside the baptistries), rather than in the highest areas of the historic structure.
The original floor plan of the Salt Lake Temple reinforced the idea of ascending “higher and higher” toward the most sacred spaces. That architectural journey—a key part of the temple’s symbolism of returning to God’s presence—has been removed.
Many historians, architectural preservationists, and longtime members view these losses as significant. The progressive ascending floor plan, the hand-painted murals in the Creation, Garden, and World rooms, the grand staircase, and the architectural expression of spiritual ascent were unique features of one of the Church’s most iconic pioneer-era temples. Critics have described the removal of these elements as a major cultural and historical loss, noting that once they are gone, they cannot be fully recovered.
The Salt Lake Temple was designed with clear progressive, ascending symbolism. That carefully crafted architectural journey is no longer part of the experience.
Here are some photos of the scaled down model of the new Salt Lake Temple and the underground sealing rooms, baptism font and initiatory rooms.
