Exploring the Frederick Albert Sutton Building

LANDSCAPING

Landscaping at FASB’s east entrance is designed to merge with the Rock Garden in front of the adjoining William Browning Building. A dry-river cobble bed outside the east entrance, facing the Wasatch Mountain, extends inside the building as a sinuous stream of pebble tile. Encased in epoxy, the pebble stream moves westward toward the stairway where it, like the stairway, drops to the first floor. The pebble stream continues flowing westward toward the first floor entrance where, outside the building, it once again becomes a dry-river cobble bed and continues toward the Salt Lake Valley.

ROCK GARDEN

Rock monoliths from Butterfield Gardens merge with the Rock Garden on the east
side of the William Browning Building.

GARENT-STAUROLITE-SCHIST

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The angled rock slab just outside the east entrance is garnet-staurolite-schist, a “quarried end piece” from the Precambrian Espinhaco Supergroup, Piripá, Bahia, Brazil and is a gift from Contempo Ceramic Tile.

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PETER B. STIFEL CONFLUENCE

PEBBLE STREAM

MOQUI MARBLE JOURNEY SCULPTURE

This sculpture features Moqui “marbles” of the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone from the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument that are embedded into Triassic Chinle Formation sandstone, known by the trade name “Kanab Goldenstone”. This rock highlights a few of the many sedimentary and fluid flow processes that are visible in southern Utah’s iconic landscape. The marbles
were recovered by the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) during an
investigation into illegal collection of these protected resources. BLM then released some marbles to the Department of Geology and Geophysics for educational use. The Goldenstone was acquired through collaboration with Ken Brown and Western Hills Rocks & Gems Inc., and the stone relief marbles were creatively embedded by Susan Judy of Stone Quilt Design.

DONOR FISH WALL

The Peter B. Stifel Confluence is also home to a spectacular display of 104 Eocene age Green River fish fossils—some 50 million years old—from Fossil Lake near Kemmerer, Wyoming. The fish, including Knightia, Priscacara, Diplomystus, and Mioplosus, are arranged in a school. The edges of the display are framed in polished Green River “marlstone”, made of limestone and dolomite, which has been set on its edge to show laminations. Fine, organic-rich oil shale laminations
provide the dark-colored stripes in the frame.

The donor listing at center of the fish wall pays lasting tribute to the individuals and organizations whose generous gifts made the construction of FASB possible.

ANTIQUE PALEONTOLOGY LITHOGRAPH WALL CHARTS

PAKISTAN CARPET

PLANT WALL

Just around the corner from the Confluence is an equally spectacular display of carbonized leaf fossils, also from the Green River Formation and ancient Fossil Lake. Because plant fossils—particularly ones that are well-preserved enough for use in scientific research—are generally quite rare, the Plant Wall is one of the best displays in the country.

This remarkable collection of plant fossils come from the Ulrich fossil quarries near Kemmerer, Wyoming. Dr. Lonnie and Shannon Paulos generously donated this collection to the University of Utah. Other portions of his collection are housed within the Department of Geology and Geophysics and the Natural History Museum of Utah at the University of Utah.

Architect John Diamond (Diamond Phillips) designed the Plant Wall with 100+ fossils.

ALLOSAURUS FRAGILIS

Allosaurus fragilis is the Utah State
Fossil and is a meat-eating dinosaur from the
Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation (ca. 150
million years ago). This specimen is from the
Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, in the newly designated
Jurassic National Monument in Emery
County, Utah. The quarry is an exceptional site
for fossilized adult and juvenile samples.

HOMINID DISPLAY

CANYONLANDS PAINTING