John Longhurst spent 30 years as a Tabernacle Organist. In addition to performing on Temple Square and on tour with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Longhurst was part of the group that decided what type of organ would be built in the Conference Center. He discussed the details in a Deseret News article. An excerpt is below:
"It began with a very exhaustive research on what we felt the best solution for an organ for the Conference Center might be."
"We looked at electronic organs. We looked at combination pipe/electronic organs. We looked at pipe organs. We looked at new organs. We looked at old organs that were becoming available because the auditoriums in which they were housed were being demolished. It took us really from coast to coast."
"In fact, I even spent some time in England talking to some of the premier organ builders there, so we really tried to do our homework on this project."