Tony SemeradThe Main Library in Salt Lake City has reopened its signature Crescent Wall after a 10-month remodel.
The dramatically arching six-story library feature — designed by famed architect Moshe Safdie — curls around the downtown building on its north and east flanks as it rises and offers an uphill hike to magical vistas in the heart of the city.
“One of Salt Lake’s most unique spaces to relax, read, and take in majestic views of the city skyline, the Wasatch Mountains, and the Salt Lake Valley as it stretches to the south,” folks with the Salt Lake City Public Library wrote in a recent post on Instagram inviting the public to see.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City’s Main Library is pictured on Thursday, May 21, 2026, following a 10-month remodel to the signature Crescent Wall, which recently reopened to the public.
The library’s chief development officer, Jessica Sweeney, said in an interview the remodel sought to breathe new life into the Crescent Wall as a definitive and historic element of the iconic library.
“We wanted to preserve it,” Sweeney said. “We love the architecture of the building and it’s why so many people love us.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City’s Main Library is pictured on Thursday, May 21, 2026, following a 10-month remodel to the signature Crescent Wall, which recently reopened to the public.
A revamped version of the library’s rooftop terrace has been open about a year. Reopening the Crescent Wall to the public coincided with the three-day Living Traditions Festival last weekend, held at the city’s Civic Center by the former Leonardo Building, between the library and City Hall.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City’s Main Library is pictured on Thursday, May 21, 2026, following a 10-month remodel to the signature Crescent Wall, which recently reopened to the public.
Along with other portions of the centerpiece library at 210 E. 400 South, the arching wall had been closed since last July as part of about $4 million in work to improve it.
Under guidance from GSBS Architects, the remodel led by Paulsen Construction has upgraded the waterproofing system of those upper library floors, rebuilt concrete walkways and terraces, installed new LED lighting, improved safety railings and remade parts of the Crescent Wall’s path and stairs.
The rooftop terrace has new seating areas, an amphitheater, drought-tolerant landscaping, pollinator gardens and panoramic views of the valley and city skyline.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City’s Main Library is pictured on Thursday, May 21, 2026, following a 10-month remodel to the signature Crescent Wall, which recently reopened to the public.
The terrace and support systems had developed leaks from weather deterioration since the library opened in 2003, with those effects worsened by the 2020 earthquake. Funds for the broader remodel of those top floors and the wall — estimated at about $10 million total including work to the rooftop terrace — have come from the library’s financial reserves, rather than new taxes.
The reopening celebrations this May have also been marked, Sweeney said, by a return of a well-known colony of bees to their rooftop hive.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City’s Main Library is pictured on Thursday, May 21, 2026, following a 10-month remodel to the signature Crescent Wall, which recently reopened to the public.
