President Gordon B. Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and chair of the Brigham Young University Board of Trustees, is scheduled to dedicate the newly completed Joseph F. Smith Building Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 11:05 a.m. during a special devotional assembly in the Marriott Center.
The devotional will be broadcast live on KBYU-TV (Channel 11), KBYU-FM (89.1) and the BYU Television and BYU Radio satellite networks as well as in the Joseph Smith Building auditorium and the Varsity Theater in the Wilkinson Student Center. For rebroadcast information, visit byubroadcasting.org.
Joining President Hinckley and BYU president Elder Cecil O. Samuelson of the First Quorum of the Seventy for the ceremony will be President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust, first and second counselors in the First Presidency, and President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Also attending will be members of the Board of Trustees, members of the Joseph F. Smith family, other General Authorities of the Church and special guests.
Music for the dedication will be provided by the combined choirs at BYU.
Underground parking in Lot 14 at the Joseph F. Smith Building will be closed that morning to allow parking for special guests attending the dedication and for building tours. No overnight parking is allowed in Lot 14, and it will be strictly enforced for the dedication. The lot will open once again after 2 p.m. for faculty and staff parking.
Faculty and staff should advised that the entire playing floor seating will be reserved for special guests for the devotional
Self-guided tours of the building also will be available beginning at noon that day.
Built on the site of the old Joseph F. Smith Family Living Center west of the Harold B. Lee Library, the 280,000-square-foot Joseph F. Smith Building is now home to the two largest colleges on campus. The College of Family, Home and Social Sciences occupies the second floor and the south and west portions of the first floor, and the College of Humanities resides on the third and fourth floors.
Its 25 classrooms can accommodate 1,400 students, and it also houses faculty offices, laboratories and conference rooms as well as several academic centers affiliated with the two colleges.
On Sundays and at other times during the week, it becomes home to 10 student wards of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Constructed with the theme of “light and truth,” the modern glass façade of the building’s main entrance contrasts with a cloistered inner courtyard featuring a fountain.
Some of the building’s residents include:
The Family History and Genealogy Center is the hub for family history education, where more than 800 students each semester are trained in the basics of family history research, including computerized genealogical programs.
The Humanities Technology and Research Report Center is a multi-faceted, computer-supported environment that assists students taking one of the many foreign language courses offered at BYU.
The Gallery and Gallery Overlook, a beautiful, light-drenched space, is designed to house a series of exhibits that will expand on the educational experiences offered in the building.
The Child and Family Studies Laboratory, founded in 1950, is a popular campus fixture. It serves more than 280 preschool and kindergarten children annually and provides a research base for the university’s marriage, family and human development programs.
The Anthropology Laboratory provides a much-needed space for training students in skills unique to this discipline, such as studies in museum presentation, primitive technology and human osteology. The building honors President Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918), who was the sixth president of the Church of Jesus Christ. He was five years old when his father, Hyrum Smith, and uncle, Joseph Smith, were martyred in Carthage, Ill.
Known as a preacher of righteousness and a youthful missionary, he was called as a missionary to the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii, when he was 15 years old.
In his dedicatory prayer at the Smith Family Living Center dedication in 1955, Elder Willard R. Smith, a son of Joseph F. Smith, spoke of President Smith’s “great love for the youth, the children of Zion; and the great hope that was always in his breast that opportunities and privileges might be granted them to be spiritually enlightened, to be physically strengthened, and to be put in tune with our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ.”
That spirit of enlightenment continues in the new building.
Architect Frank Ferguson with FFKR Architects and Okland Construction, both of Salt Lake City, designed and completed the project.
For more information, visit the colleges’ Web sites at humanities.byu.edu/home/index.php and fhss.byu.edu.
Writer: Cecelia Fielding
