TEMPLE VIEW CONDOMINIUM REVISITED: AN EDITORIAL ABOUT CITY CREEK CONDOMINIUM DEVELOPMENTS AND WHAT THEY REVEAL

A FLIGHT OF FANTASY

In 1982, I finished writing the first Science Fiction Futuristic Mormon Novel in the history of LDS fiction. I titled my novel A City on a Hill. The plot took place in the Salt Lake City of the near future. I did not identify specifically what year the story occurred, but I consulted a perpetual calendar and selected the year 2003 or 2031.

I created for my novel a setting called Temple View Condominium, a gigantic housing complex at the west edge of downtown Salt Lake City located roughly where the Miller’s Arena now sits. I bring Temple View Condominium into the conversation after all these years because it makes a fascinating comparison to the condominiums discussed on 16 April in the Salt Lake Tribune’s article

$2 Million too much for a City Creek condo? Not with those 'suite' views
Real estate » Realtors say LDS temple sightlines will bring plenty of Mormon buyers.

For starters, the developers of the condominium complexes under construction at City Creek Development have made them really rather too small. I do not suggest that the developers should have built some 2000-foot-tall complexes the size of Burj Dubai or Dubai Pentenium. I can tell you this: my condominium complex constitutes a better use of the space than the Miller Arena or the housing developments planned for City Creek Complex.

Temple View consisted of a ten-story base complex full of multi-story atriums, reading rooms, libraries, shops, restaurants, meeting rooms and, yes, chapels. Tower Three of condos stood over 30 stories tall. Tower two stood over 40 stories tall. Tower One – the tallest tower of condos – topped out at just over 50 stories tall. My characters lived in that tower on – if memory serves me – floor 49. The top floor featured a revolving restaurant.

The featured family of my novel’s plot lived in a condo with balconies, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, parlor, dining room, offices, media room, and galley. The galleys actually connected to a gigantic community galley down below. The residents could order groceries sent up by way of pneumatic dumbwaiters, or they could order full meals from the community galley.


CITY CREEK CONDOMINIUMS AS THEY MIGHT HAVE BEEN

When the LDS Church leadership commissioned the City Creek Development, it had a golden opportunity to bring middle-class working-class families with children into downtown Salt Lake City.

Just imagine: One or two or three thirty-stories complexes featuring 3000 square foot condominiums complete with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, parlor, offices, media room, and balcony. The goal should have been price ranges in the $200,000 to $300,000 range. Their furnishings to start could have been comfortable but basic; the owners could upgrade and gild their lilies . . . . condos as financing and interest allowed.

Of course, these complexes could have featured smaller condominiums and larger ones, and maybe even some ubberschmarm penthouses.


COLD SLAP OF REALITY

The condos as planned illustrates how wide spread in Mormondom is the attitude of wealth equaling virtue. The developers have designed Small complexes, Small condos, BIG prices. Apparently they – it is hard to tell just how high up this attitude goes – do not want working-class riffraff living near Temple Square.

Downtown Salt Lake City will have the best Mormons money can buy. I ask you – what kind of people buy a place that has a temple as a sightline stage backdrop?