SALT LAKE CITY – An iconic part of the old Salt Lake City International Airport will find a new home in the new facility that passengers will be able to tour later this year.
A masonry team this summer completed the reinstallation of the airport’s 64-year-old world map and placed it at the entrance to Hall B of the new central tunnel, which is scheduled to open along with five new gates on October 22.
“This is kind of a continuation of history,” said Chandler McClellan, deputy program director for the airport’s redevelopment program, as he stood on the world map on Monday. “We want people to feel and see what was originally here.”
Becoming a “focal point”
The map dates from 1960, three years before the facility officially became Salt Lake City International Airport. The architectural firm Ashton, Evans and Brazier designed the massive 38-by-38-foot map, and stonemason Julius Bartoli made it out of terrazzo so it would fit into the then-new airport terminal. It ultimately serves as a sort of time capsule from that era, as it shows one of the airline’s existing routes from 1960.
Moreover, it would remain a popular feature of the airport for 60 years.
Near the entrance of the old terminal, many families — especially families of Latter-day Saint missionaries — would stand where a loved one was flying to or coming from. Parents would show their children the places they were flying to, and the children would run into a country and pretend to eat in that country, airport officials fondly recall.
It was the “hub” of the airport, former airport police chief Craig Vargo once recalled.
“Anyone who came to the airport could say, ‘Let’s meet at the world map,’ and anyone who had ever been to the airport knew exactly where to go,” he said in a history of the facility compiled by airport officials.
Yet its fate remained uncertain when work began on a new airport building in 2014 – and its completion proved to be a technological masterpiece.
A “tedious task” to save the map
Those responsible for the project are not convinced that they can save the map, said airport spokeswoman Nancy Volmer.
Jake Bingham, project manager at Finn Wall Specialities, explained that the company was unable to find any records of a terrazzo conservation project that matched what was required, and due to the overall weight and fragility of the artwork, it had to be extracted in pieces.
“To simply dismantle it, take it out in pieces and then put it back again – that’s never been done before,” he said, adding that he expected his company to have to build a replica if the airport authorities wanted it so badly.
However, the way the construction crews installed Bartoli’s map was the factor that saved the map from destruction.
IMS Masonry was hired to remove portions of the terrazzo floor outside the map. The masons discovered that a release liner was used between the terrazzo and the floor, which allowed the map to be removed without destroying it, said John Kunz, project manager at IMS Masonry.
At the end of 2020, months after the old airport closed, teams moved out and began recovering the map.
“When we got that first piece, it was like a breath of fresh air,” he said. “Once we got that, I knew we had it and we could get it out.”
The team broke it into 75 pieces—each about 4 feet by 4 feet and weighing 390 pounds—so that it could be reassembled and polished once construction crews were ready to begin building an extension to Hall B.
Those pieces remained in storage until earlier this year, when the map was reinstalled on an escalator at the north end of the Central Tunnel. Because of its size and location, additional work was required on the building’s frame to allow the building to support the weight of the map, McClellan said.
“It was a painstaking task,” Bingham added. “Sometimes I wondered if it was doable. But here it is and we’re doing it. It’s done.”
An old but new “main attraction”
McClellan is convinced that all the work will be worth it.
The world map is one of the few new art installations that passengers will notice in the expansion of Concourse B. It is surrounded by a second canyon wall artwork similar to the art installation in Concourse A that leads to the central tunnel.
The Central Tunnel itself is a work of art that recreates the rivers that flow through Utah’s canyon walls, and several other outdoor-themed art elements are planned for this section of the growing airport.
McClellan expects that after the opening, many – especially those who remember the old airport – will fall in love with the world map again.
“The lion’s share of people who come (to Hall B) are going to take (the Central Tunnel) and look at this,” he said, pointing to the map. “In my opinion, that’s really the main attraction of this facility.”
