[7] Because the building sits near the base of Salt Lake City's Capitol Hill, the roof is landscaped for attractiveness, an extension of the Gardens at Temple Square.

[9] Plans "for construction at some indefinite date of a 30,000-seat auditorium of the block north of Temple Square" were first announced at the October 1951 General Conference by church president David O. McKay as part of his worldwide building effort.

[12] The LDS Church originally sought a 26,000-seat building no more than 75 feet (23 m) high in accord with zoning regulations for the church-owned 10 acres (40,000 m2) block immediately north of Temple Square.

Although the Conference Center is a modern steel truss and rebar-based design without need for masonry support, the LDS Church sought slabs of quartz monzonite, a form of granite, to clad all exterior walls.

Specifically, the church wanted granite to match rock quarried more than a hundred years earlier to build the adjacent Salt Lake Temple.

Therefore, the church requested a permit to quarry granite from Little Cottonwood Canyon southeast of Salt Lake City.

The Salt Lake County Commission granted a two-year permit on condition that extraction not interfere with the ski season.

Critics of the extraction argued that the quarry harmed the environment and burdened residents while endangering drivers through Little Cottonwood Canyon below.

[16] Although court filings challenged the legality of extracting the granite (specifically attacking Salt Lake County's authority to issue permit), the project was interrupted only by winter weather.

He also related that a black walnut tree that he had planted decades earlier in his backyard provided wood for the pulpit of the new center.

The Conference Center dedication demonstrated that the hosanna shout, although considered sacred by the Latter-day Saints, is not necessarily used exclusively in temple-related settings.

This organ also has many other unique features, including full-compass manual 32' reed and flute registers, double expression, and many heroic voices on high pressure.