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Dina Freedman ReportingThere's something in downtown Salt Lake City a lot of people haven't seen and now it's being recognized by a national magazine. The LDS Conference Center's roof garden is featured in the October Issue of Landscape Architecture magazine.
You can see just the trees from the street, but it's the roof that recalls how unique our state's landscape is. The top of the LDS conference center isn't just any ordinary city roof. It's covered in color just like the mountains around it.
Eldon Cannon, Ground Services Temple Square: "The trees that you can see behind us are reminiscent of the mountains the pioneers came out of, and if you look back towards the Salt Lake itself, you notice that you look across this meadow and it's reminiscent of the pioneers coming out of the mountains."
Most people don't realize that the garden actually is open to the public, you just have to be guided and you can't go alone.
Native flowers and grasses are home to bugs, birds and mice but the trees and soil are also unique.
Eldon Cannon: "The depth of it is anywhere from 12 inches to about four feet deep. Most of the roots of the trees are 12 to 18 inches deep so there's not an awful lot of depth required for their growth."
The water that's running on top of the conference center is actually reminiscent of the mountain streams the pioneers saw as they came down into the Salt Lake valley.
Usually Mother Nature would keep up the natural cycle of growth by burning, but here, they just mow.
Eldon Cannon: "Obviously the fire department of Salt Lake City wouldn't appreciate it if we lit the roof of the conference center on fire, so we go through and mow the roof about once a year to duplicate that fire process."
It's a special place with, literally, important roots to the history of Salt Lake. You won't be able to tour the garden during conference weekend, but on normal business days, bring a friend, grab a guide by the elevators and explore the roof. It's a neat place with some beautiful scenery.
