After Two Years of Work, an Updated Tabernacle

The Mormon church has drawn criticism from preservationists for replacing the tabernacle’s original pews, made from pine and “grained” by artisans with paint and etchings to appear like oak, the wood favored by Brigham Young, the pioneer Mormon leader. The new pews are made of oak.

The president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley, in rededicating the egg-shaped tabernacle on Saturday, said, “With this undertaking, we hope and pray that its historical features have not been destroyed.”

The tabernacle’s famed acoustics, which legend has it enabled a listener to a hear a pin drop from 250 feet away, were measured before the renovation began, modeled on computers and then assessed again recently, said Roger P. Jackson, the project’s lead architect. Mr. Jackson said he expected the building’s enveloping sound would be preserved.

“Acoustics is a science and an art,” he said, “but it’s also guesswork. Anything you do has an impact.”

Church officials declined to talk about the project’s cost but said the money came from members’ tithes, or 10 percent of all income. The church says it has about 12 million members, including 6 million in the United States.

The church spared few expenses on the tabernacle in its seismic retrofitting, especially since seeing the project completed was a personal objective of Mr. Hinckley, 96.

The wooden roof trusses have been girded with steel. The roof’s 44 stone support piers have new steel and concrete reinforcements. Fourteen layers of paint, including one of bird’s-egg blue, were removed from the ceiling. The rostrum, where nearly 100 church leaders sit facing the audience during religious services, can now be lowered with a hydraulic lift and replaced with a stage for an orchestra.