Miscellaneous projects: Bonneville Stake; Clearfield fire house; Salt Lake City library, etc.

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His father had ·designed the· spin~s aad iDierier of die Salt Lake Mor-mo~ Temple. George Cannon Young designed the new claurch offices. Business Portrait George C. Young: A Life of Architecture His manicured fingers, work quickly with the pen. On a scrap of paper, the. skeletal form of the Mormon Church's new office building takes shape as dark, intense · lines. Here, at the 15th story, was where the cross bracing was designed in. That gave the building addi­tional strength against earth­quake arid allowed the con­struction of additional levels. George Cannon Young was the architect for the building and its plaza, which was dedicated just a few days ago. Envisiened 36 S&ories When the church first an­nounced its intent to build a major office, the rendering showed a 36-story building. But over the years of. plan­ning, it was brought down to 26 stories ...- or 28 if you count the reception area and two office levels that were built where the water towers were to have gone. He had not reached a decision on an appropriate level by himself, he says. He had called in three other architects to be certain the scale was appropriate. Coolen Eliminated The water coolers were eliminated after it was deter­mined that water from four wells could be cycled through the building's chillers to pro­vide an appropriate balance of heat and cold for air conditioning. The sun's impact on the broad expanse of concrete and glass on the 420-foot high structure was lessened ~ nd· the facade softened by use oi . long "Doric" fluting. Thus, the building bas be­come a model of energy efficiency. The $40 million plus struc­ture represented the biggest commission in the career of the 77-year-old architect. But his favorites are consid­erably less imposing . They include the Relief Society Building and the Visitors Center on Temple Square. Proposed Center He , himself, had proposed ·the Visit.ors Center, which, incidentally houses the first ;.piggyback" theater in the nation. ·'Architects have to lead, " he says, "not just sit back and wait for commissions." He was born iu1898, a son of Joseph Don Carlos Young. Father Young not only was a son of the Mormon leader Brigham Young, but also was the successor architect - to Truman 0. Angell- on the Salt Lake Temple. By the time, he was 12, young George already was ·perched on a drafting stool doing some of · the textural work on the rendering his father was preparing for the design competition for the Utah Capitol building. enough to learn how to use his knee as a fulcrum when shoveling and to find it was easier to break up ''hard pan'' by undermining it prior to attacking it with a pick. Essential Tasks That and subsequent car­pentry, masonry and roofing experience, he views as hav­ing been essential to his training and understanding as an architect, ·and, indeed, should be essential to any architecf~ training today. While he was getting cal­louses on his hands, he was also absorbing classic design with his mind. He steeped himseH in Greek and ·Roman proportion and its descendent applications in Georgian and Colonial architecture. But in design, he considered only the application philosophy of the classic ar­chitecture and not the specifics. More than any, it was French architect Paul Crete who was his model. Crete had enormous respect for classic design. But his credo was: ·'Simplicity." · Came In Second Mr. Young, however, was The Young design came in· never able to embrace the second behind that of Rich~rd 1 Spartan glass and steel ar­Kletting. chitectural philosophy of the In 1970, Mr. Young inade the national scene in a large photograph in LIFE magazine where he was rep­resented as one of many a group of ' 1hardhats" greeting then Vice President Spiro Agnew on a visit to Salt Lake City. It was not as though he had not done his share of pick and shovel work in his early years. In fact, be had done Bauhaus school in Germany .· That was "starvation ar­chitecture," he said, reflect­ing the economic disrepair of ·Germany after World War I and had no place in America. It was his belief that Frank lloyd Wright had liberated Am eric an architecture from the slavish imitation of classic ferms. And he was one of a committee of 14 Ameri­can architects who . unamin­ously voted the late Mr. Wright the gold medal award of the American Institute of Architects. I ;Have It Easy' The architects today, he says, "have it easy!" He recalls of his beginning years when a "million dollar build­ing' ' anywhere got front page on the New York Times and local offices would scramble to get the commission on a $50,000 building. In the 1930s, he worked as a $3-a-day employe of the State Planning Office . Among his assignments: An inVentory of water resources in Utah ac­cording to their location and elevation . Expert water ·engineer George D: Clyde, later to become governor of Utah, called it the best study he'd ever seen. Mr . Young also designed the Girl Scout Lodge at Camp Cloud Rim near Brighton. There were $50,000 in masonry materials available for the lodge construction, but no money to buy cement. Result: It was built of logs cut and hauled from Mirror Lake. He designed the Hotel Utah's underground parking terrace - the first of its kind in the nation - and the Primary Children's Hospital. His glass-backed handball court · at the old Deseret Gymnasium also was the first in the country. He is a preservationist by sentiment. For example, he would like to see the old Constitution Building in downtown Salt Lake City restored and put to new use. He was architect for the Nauvoo, Ill. restoration. He also was architect for restora­tion of the Brigham Young home at St. George and the Jacob Hamblin Home in Santa Clara . He headed restoration of the Lion House and W8i chairman of the restoration committee of the Beehive House . He was a member of the architectural consortium whose design urgings re­sulted in the new federal building in. Salt Lake City being set back from 1 ~t South with a plaza to front it. One of the commissions tnat amuses him was the excava: tion under the Tabernacle. He had to argue for that one:. Some objected that the sound; · of-a-pin would be marred b}: the noise of the evacuatioll' under the floor. George solved that neatly: Every time the tour guide wanted to drop a pin. the guide would ring a bell. Work underneath would be sus-. pended until the pin had dropped and the unique ac­coustics of the tabernacle demonstrated. In his time, he says, he has. lost as well as won desigO: arguments. But he has never failed to argue when hiS: sensibilities were offended. One of the first advocates o( the II Century Plan which i~ finally being realized in down·. tov.rn Salt Lake City, he ra3ed strongly against the propos­als by J. C. Penney Co. to extend the off and on ramps of its new downtown parking ramp ov·er the sidewalk at 2nd South. This spring he was pre­sented a certificate of ap­preciation from the Utah Chapter of the American insititute of Architects. In 1958, he was named . to the prestigious ranks of- the Col­lege of Fellows of the Ameri­can Institute of Architects. He served as bishop in the LDS church for 13 years and as chaplain of the Utah legisla­ture. He and his wife, the former Eleanor . Wright whom he married in · 1924, have four sons : Kay W., Richard W., Willard W. and George Can­non Young Jr., and "twelve and one half'' grandchildren.