The Real Concern with the Abravanel Hall Demolition Proposal

By Michael Luce

The arrival of an NHL team to Utah has meant many upcoming changes for the Salt Lake City area, and earlier this month, Smith Entertainment Group unveiled an early proposal for an entertainment district in the center of the city that included human-focused infrastructure, new structures, and renovations to some existing buildings. However, one building was left off the list of proposed renovations and was instead suggested for demolition: Abravanel Hall, home of the Utah Symphony.

This created a massive outcry, as Abravanel Hall is a beloved place by many. Plenty of other publications have shared touching personal anecdotes related to the building, the difficult history of the site, and the massive public support for keeping it.

I personally love the idea of creating a walkable, human-centric entertainment district in Salt Lake City. Utah has so many amazing creators and entrepreneurs, and creating a space to showcase those individuals and uplift and support the people of Utah is not only something that speaks to me but also absolutely central to the mission and goals of Provo Music Magazine. However, I also agree with many of the concerns that have been shared. I cannot condone the outright deletion of a space so important to Utah music over the past 45 years. This issue clearly means a lot to a lot of people, and if nothing else, these protests have shown these plans need to be handled carefully. But careful handling is where the real concern with these plans lies.

It’s true there are real costs to the structural renovations needed to keep Abravanel Hall running (around $200 million, according to some estimates), and that these costs are nearly the same as just building a new concert hall from scratch. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t think the outcry would have been so serious if Smith Entertainment Group had announced intentions to replace Abravanel Hall with a new arts center or performance hall instead of just removing it without providing an alternative. The initial proposal focusing primarily on the removal of the hall suggests a flippant and dismissive attitude towards the current arts culture that Salt Lake City has cultivated over many decades and does not inspire confidence that everything that exists now won’t simply be paved over by other interests. As one architect said, it reeks of disposable culture.

This isn’t me simply fighting against change. My grandfather is a historic preservationist and spends a great deal of time working to catalogue the history of important (and less important) buildings and ensure, where appropriate, they stand for future generations to appreciate. I also worked for several years at the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU in Special Collections. Heck, even this website has an extensive archive of Provo music history. All this to say I am aware of the difference between keeping something old just because it’s old (aka hoarding) and preserving legacies and histories. I personally have few ties to Abravanel Hall, but I have heard from countless individuals that it is a special place that should not have its fate treated so carelessly.

Building an entertainment community and culture should not come at the cost of tearing down the existing community and culture already present. Many times, both preservation and progress are less about what you do and more about how you do it. It’s about whose stories you’re continuing to share and what you’re doing to keep them alive and available for the future.

If Ryan Smith, the rest of Smith Entertainment Group, and the Salt Lake City government are serious about fostering great local talent and entertainment, they need to make sure that the existing legacy is preserved and that they are working with the people who have the interests of the music community at heart (just as much as they work with those who have the sports community at heart). If I may be so bold, I happen to know a few people who would be more than happy to provide suggestions on how to support the music community in Utah. A few of them even happen to run a magazine that, despite what the name suggests, covers music from all around Utah and not just Provo. (Look, I’m not saying I’m asking for a check from Ryan Smith, but I’m not saying I’d turn one down either. Also, if Ryan Smith happens to read this: Hi! Big fan of your work! I’d love to chat sometime; our team’s got some cool stuff in the tank I think you’d really enjoy. Hit us up!)

A building with such important ties to the last 50 years of Utah entertainment deserves much more careful consideration and planning than feels like is currently happening. If nothing else, making the music community a part of the discussion will make building an entertainment hub a lot easier because it won’t have to be made from scratch.

While you’re here, be sure to give the Utah Symphony Orchestra a bit of love and listen to their performance of Siegmeister’s “Western Suite: I. Prairie Morning” from their album American 20th Century Composers, Vol. 3 that released last week!