By Christopher Smart, The Salt Lake Tribune

It’s sleek and inviting and looks toward the future.

The design of the planned $116 million Utah Performing Arts Center was unveiled Wednesday at a Gallivan Plaza ceremony, where the team of Pelli Clark Pelli Architects and HKS Architects said it drew on Utah’s past to look to Salt Lake City’s future.

The 2,500-seat playhouse is being billed by Mayor Ralph Becker as the centerpiece of the capital city’s performing arts venues. It was designed specifically to accommodate traveling Broadway-style shows, as well as concerts and plays.

The challenge for renown Argentine architect Cesar Pelli, who is based in New Haven, Conn., was to design a theater that could accommodate big, sophisticated shows in a relatively small space between the old Tribune Building, 143 S. Main and a planned office tower on the corner of 100 South Main. And it had to reflect Salt Lake City present day as well as its historic architecture.

"We want this to be a gorgeous new theater," Pelli said in an interview. "But we want it to be a Salt Lake City theater."

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