What is it about Salt Lake City civic leaders that they can't see a patch of green without thinking about what kind of building should fill it up?

It happened when the Gallivan Center was fresh and new, and somebody suggested that the Marriott should build a hotel there. (There also have been plans discussed to put a building up on the north side, between the Marriott and the One Utah Center.)

Now, according to this report by the Tribune's Derek P. Jensen, Mayor Ralph Becker is making a pitch to build a new headquarters building for the city's police and fire department in the green space on the east side of Library Square.

OK, Salt Lake's cops and firefighters need a new building. The current HQ is 50 years old and falling apart.

But crowding out the park east of the Library - and potentially blocking the view of what is easily the most architecturally gorgeous building in downtown Salt Lake City - is wrong-headed.

"The massing there is a big mistake," City Councilman Luke Garrott told the Tribune's Jensen, adding that the location in question was once home to "some of the ugliest buildings in town," the jail and the Metropolitan Hall of Justice.

Labels: Library Square, Ralph Becker