SC16 returns to Salt Lake City Nov. 13-18
With the SC conference returning to Salt Lake City next week, we’d like to share some of the reasons why we think SLC is one of the most underrated American cities. With a smallish central population of just 180,000, the city was built on a scale of wide streets, long boulevards and spacious sidewalks that gives it a grand feel.
If you’re out on the town, be sure not to miss these highlights in Salt Lake City:
Temple Square—No trip to SLC would be complete without a visit to the majestic Mormon Temple and its attendant square. The 35-acre complex has a ton to experience with none more impressive of than The Salt Lake Temple itself. Built in 1893, the temple is an astounding 235,000 square feet and while it is considered sacred ground and forbidden to non-Mormon visitors, the building itself is a feast for the eyes. The other buildings and sites that can be visited and are highly recommended are the Mormon Tabernacle, the Beehive House and the beautiful Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
Utah State Capitol—Just to the North of Temple Square, the state’s capitol building completed in 1916 is a neoclassical masterpiece built in a highly formalistic manner reminiscent of the Greek Parthenon. The building’s second floor–called the main floor–is home to the 165 feet tall, stunning rotunda and is flanked by 8 separate scenes from Utah’s history. From there one should climb up to the fourth floor for a view of the house and senate chambers and as well as a gallery of lovely artwork from Utah’s past. On the way out, be sure to walk by the newly added reflecting pool and take in views of the city from this elevated perch.
SLC Public Library—With over the 500,000 books the library is certainly a place to go to find a rare book or visit an old favorite but the architecture alone is an excellent reason to visit. The stunning, contemporary building consists of a 5-story glass wall that gives the library welcomed natural reading light and a pretty rooftop garden with lovely trees and plants and a nice view of the city. Be sure to check out the graphic novel collection as it is considered to be one of the finest in the world.
The Gallivan Center—November in Utah can be a, well, cold affair so why not join in on the late Fall weather and go ice-skating at what is known as SLC’s living room. Surrounded by art projects, open space and various meeting facilities the modernist-bent, right-next-to-the-convention center complex is an excellent place to people watch or just relax from a long day and is right off of the Trax transit blue and green line.
Natural History Museum—Located a short 4-mile Uber ride or a Trax ride away from downtown, the museum is located in a world-class designed building that resides on the University of Utah’s campus. Wrapped in locally mined copper, the building known as The Rio Tinto Center is meant to echo the unique rock formations found throughout Utah. The museum’s goal is to bring to light the natural world and human’s place in it–and that it does in spectacular fashion. For those that love dinosaurs and paleontology, it has 10s of 1000s of flora and fauna pieces. In addition there are a million plus anthropological objects as well as scores of specimens in botany, entomology and mineralogy.
Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, 20 S W Temple 84111 . Directly adjacent to the convention center, the UMOCA has an excellent permanent collection of contemporary art culled from local, national and international scenes including some fantastic Warhol pieces.
Ken Sanders Rare Books, 268 200 E. 84111. Funky, eclectic and charmingly unorganized, this bookstore is as anti-corporate as it gets. Spend hours here going through the stacks to find treasures of rare, unusual and antique books.
The Pioneer Memorial Museum, 300 Main St 84103. This is not your average ancestral pioneer revisitation. Explore Utah’s highly unique history via artifacts, period letters and other borderline bizarre objects.
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This post is just one of the great features in the new Print ‘n Fly Guide to SC16 in Salt Lake City. Inside this guide you will find technical features on supercomputing, HPC interconnects, and the latest developments on the road to exascale. It also has great recommendations on food, entertainment, and transportation in SLC.
Table of Contents
- What’s Next for HPC? A Q&A with Michael Kagan, CTO, Mellanox
- When State-of-the-Art Becomes State-of-the-Smart, by Scot Schulz, Mellanox
- Changing the Face of the SC Conference Series: An Interview with SC16 General Chair John West
- Offloading vs. Onloading: The Case of CPU Utilization
- Salt Lake City Guide – A Wonder of the West
- The Ultimate Debate – Interconnect Offloading versus Onloading – Round 3 (InfiniBand versus Omni-Path)
- Our Top Top Recommendation for a Great Dinner in SLC
- Local’s Guide to Food & Entertainment in Salt Lake City
- Transportation Guide to Salt Lake City
We’d like to thank our sponsors from Mellanox for making this guide possible. We hope you find it useful.
The Guide is produced in PDF format, so it’s ready to print out in color or black & white. You can even read it right on your smart phone with our Mobile Edition that will be available next week.
