As a Salt Lake City resident, I have often wondered if the architect hired by the church "pulled a fast one" by engineering a giant penis into the structure. I'm not one for conspiracies, nor am I trying to go for a cheap-shot joke. Really, I think that it is unmistakable...it is a giant, WHITE, erect penis, complete with "balls" (the two earth globes) on either side of the shaft. At the very apex of the shaft, both sides of the shaft curve back gently, making a penis head/hood on top of the shaft. Just LOOK at it. It can't be a mistake.

Come on...am I the only one to notice this??? This has to have been done on purpose. Thoughts?

From the old 'Melanie' song

a thing's a phallic symbol. if it's longer than it's wide


but... no - as the proud owner of a penis - I dont really see the resemblance

Check out the picture at the link below...and "sqint" just a little bit. :^)

http://www.bookofabraham.com/cob.jpg

You can tell that the church is aware of this because ALL of the officially released photos of the COB have the "balls" cropped out of the shot. Check it out!!

I see it.

What really separates this building from other sky scrapers is the awesome "balls" on either side. That's just too good to be true.

Can't-imagine-what-the-architect-was-thinking-ly yrs,

S

Right now we in SLC have suffered once again from the the LDS "neurosis of the perpetual beehive bureaucractice building beavers." If some mid-level COB bigwig sees what you said and decides it has merit, they'll decide it's an eyesore and it'll come down, and then we'll have some more downtown construction... It's been that way ad infinitum, ad nauseum...

Seriously, anyone who's watched, as I have (since it's essentially "my office") for the last 20 years realizes the truth of the late Dan Valentine's observtion, "Salt Lake is a lovely city, if only they would get it finished."

No, it won't happen in the next year, but maybe in the next 20...

Was there conscious or subconscious intent on the part of the designer--or is the (at least schematic) resemblance merely coincidental? That's "hard" to say.

There is certainly some plausible deniability, however, since, OF COURSE, as some in this thread have pointed out, the resemblance isn't EXACT!

Considering the total obsession with males ie the priesthood and sex, I'm not surprised.

Fortunately that isn't often. Still, I wonder what they were thinking when they built the ugly thing.

I still remember my Mom's comment when the building was first announced: "I guess this means the millennium isn't coming any time soon." She'd say the same thing about the mall.

Maybe we see what we want to see. As high rise office buildings go...there are tons that have it beat.

Just looks like a million other buildings, tall, rectangular and flat.

Really? Show me just one other building that has two big balls at its base. It's pretty clear to most observers.

I wouldn't have even thought of this until he told me about it.

COB suddenly reveals itself as phallic.

I've also heard this description regularly since it was built.

White and delightsome...

Its the two nuts, disguised as maps of the world, at the base that completes the picture for me.

Were you the same person that wondered this 10 years ago?

They should tear down the Relief Society building and replace it with a giant vagina to compliment the big shaft and balls next door.

Slightly off-topic, but the 2002 SLC Olympic decoration of the COB was another ballsy move.

http://tin.le.org/WinterOlympics/MedalsPlaza06.jpg
http://tin.le.org/WinterOlympics/
http://www.sohmphoto.com/Projects7-5.html

Someone had a room with a view...

RG

Fro Knowlton's artice:

"At the heart of . . . Mormon notions of masculinity reside somewhat opposing notions of sexuality. [One embodies] . . . the idea that 'sexual performance is closely associated with the state of being manly’ . . . [but on the other hand] the Church stresses over and over, from the time we are boys through adult life, that we must repress our libido."

"It rises, like a powerful, towering phallus, from a nest of two smaller, rounder buildings . . . [W]e find crucial structural tensions right in the middle of this powerful biological drive connected with our sense of ourselves as men and our relationship with Church authority."

The two testicles seal the deal. When I first looked at the picture I scrolled down and spat out my coffee when I came to the balls of the matter. How fitting that a male dominated organization could not think of anything more appropriate than a big penis. Based on the recent topic that Utah men had the seconds smallest penises in the 50 states, I would say that there was a deficiency that motivated the building.

Those who haven't noticed it have not been looking or listening.

It's got nothing to do with the sexual orientation of the OP. It's just an observation. I gotta agree; the more I look at that photo, the more it looks like a giant, white dildo.