It was 1963, and Utah architect Charles D. Peterson had a problem: how to plop a biggish church in a smallish space.

His congregation, Mount Tabor Lutheran, had outgrown its Avenues home, so leaders commissioned Peterson to design a new meetinghouse. But the lot was a mere acre on the corner of 200 South and 700 East in Salt Lake City and included income-generating, church-owned properties on each side that couldn’t be touched. On top of that, zoning required a certain number of parking spots. That left a small parcel on the southwest corner for the actual church.