A piece of art, history or both is coming back to Salt Lake City International Airport, and it might just give travelers a hint of nostalgia and even travel inspiration.
The original world map that millions of passengers walked across to get to their gate inside one of the terminals at the old Salt Lake City Airport is coming to Concourse B.
The map, designed by Dallas stoneworker Julius Bartoli, graced the floor of the former airport for 60 years until the old terminal was demolished in 2020. The map had sat in storage for four years when airport officials decided to bring back the original work of art as part of the new airport’s expansion.
“So a lot of people will remember it because it was on the security checkpoint area and it had stanchions over it after 9/11, said airport spokesperson Nancy Volmer. “It's a very beloved piece, and we have a lot of people who have just really wanted us to be able to save the world map.
Why did the airport decide to restore the map instead of making a new one?
According to the airport, the project to extract and restore the map was never set and stone, but Volmer said the possibility of restoring it became a reality with the right teams and budget. The total cost of the project is around $250,000.
“We originally didn't think we'd be able to do so,” Volmer added. “But when we closed the old airport, our engineers, the architects, went in, they found a way to save it; so they extracted it, put it in storage, and then just recently reinstalled it here in Concourse B in the new plaza.”
How did airport officials lift and move the terrazzo map to the new airport?
The map is made up of 75 individual pieces, each weighing over 400 pounds.
“I've been a stone mason for 45 years, and to be asked to see if we can pull this together was, you know, it's quite the feat,” said John Kunz, project manager for Innovative Masonry Systems, a Lindon-based company that helped reinstall the map.
When the original map was extracted four years ago, Kunz said the big worry was keeping the stone intact. However, he lauded the original team of masons and engineers that put down the map six decades ago.
“Underneath the terrazzo is a three-and-a-half-inch thick bed of dry pack, which is basically cement and sand,” he explained. “Underneath the dry pack was a fabric that separated the floor from the back of the terrazzo setting surface. As we pulled and separated the piece, the terrazzo floor separated from the landscape fabric.”
This separation made it easier for Kunz and his team to lift the map from its place.
Why is the map only a partial world map?
When passengers walk by the map, they might notice that it isn’t a complete world map, only showing United flight routes from the 1960s.
“You can see there weren't a lot of nonstop flights back then,” Volmer said. “They had to fuel. They had smaller planes at that point. From Salt Lake City, you’d go to maybe Washington or New York before you could get over to Dublin or Paris or Madrid.”
When can the public view the map?
The map will be available for the public to view when Phase 3 of the airport opens on Oct. 22.
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