Ezra Taft Benson Building

Immediately after the completion of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, construction began on the Ezra Taft Benson Building. It was built in the area previously occupied by the old Joseph Smith Building. This 190,000 square foot building was dedicated in October 1995 and was designed as a multi-function facility, as are many of the buildings on campus. As the university community includes so many LDS students, there is not adequate church space available in the downtown Provo area. Rather than build numerous churches to handle the students, the facilities on campus are designed to handle church needs and academic needs. This particular building can house an entire BYU stake for all its meetings on Sunday.

The building was also designed to provide state-of-the-art technology for the Chemistry Department so research into areas such as cancer and DNA can be handled professionally and students can learn the best methods available and apply them after they graduate.

The building is named for Ezra Taft Benson, who was 13th president of the LDS church. Prior to that, he served in many capacities, including U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Ezra Taft Benson Agriculture and Food Institute founded in 1976 is also named for him. The institute’s goal was to make life better for people who could be reached worldwide. One major program involves development and promotion of a revolutionary technique is small-scale agriculture. Besides providing 100 percent nutrition on two acres of land for a family of seven, the technique is also adapted to local climates and dietary habits. The main objective of the program, which is being implemented in third-world countries such as Mali, is to make a family nutritionally self-reliant.