Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[mattreedah]

It’s kind of nuts that the state legislature turned from “let’s build point of the mountain” to “let’s completely rebuild downtown slc” on a dime. The church has to be majorly involved. I say that as a practicing lds guy. I don’t think I’m being conspiratorial.

[Nebula3lem123]

Originally Posted by Atlas

Downtown photos taken with 300mm lens from Sandy, ~10.5 miles away.

Every time someone here posts a photo of the skyline we look more like a real city. Probably just delusion on my end though.

[Ironweed]

Originally Posted by Nebula3lem123

Every time someone here posts a photo of the skyline we look more like a real city. Probably just delusion on my end though.

It surprisingly has a small pyramid or dome ascetic from this angle.

[joscar]

Originally Posted by i-215

What are your thoughts on the Utah Wollen Mills Building circus?



https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-...fter-119-years

Evidently, the business is getting evicted because of a "landlord dispute." Which I thought was weird, because I thought UWM owned their building after the buyout in the 1970s for Crossroads Plaza. And also why the building wasn't demolished as part of the City Creek Mall project.

https://www.ksl.com/article/50974159...o-be-torn-down

But now, the KSL article says the UWM building was damaged in the 2020 Magna quake and the building's owner Property Reserve Inc. (the LDS church) is demolishing the building and kicking them out.

How did PRI end up owning the building?

And (putting a tin-foil hat on my head)... have they found the UWM building an annoyance (that they didn't sell out for the mall) and are using this an excuse to win a petty fight? (/tin foil hat)

The church has always owned it – Zions Securities had it built back in 1957 as an addition to the Beneficial Life Building (originally, the Vermont Building). I think the Vermont Building bit the dust when Crossroads was constructed.

Here's a special Deseret News section from back when it opened:
https://books.google.com/books?id=IE...page&q&f=false

[Comrade]

Same-ish view from 20 years ago:

[EPdesign]

Originally Posted by Nebula3lem123

Every time someone here posts a photo of the skyline we look more like a real city. Probably just delusion on my end though.

I don’t understand what makes it not be a real city. Salt lake is impressive. No, it’s not a large city…but it holds its own.

I’m impressed with how Salt Lake is coming along, especially now that I’ve lived and experienced other cities.

Also…I would give anything for light rail…edit…anything for light rail in Florida

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by EPdesign

I don’t understand what makes it not be a real city. Salt lake is impressive. No, it’s not a large city…but it holds its own.

I’m impressed with how Salt Lake is coming along, especially now that I’ve lived and experienced other cities.

Also…I would give anything for light rail…edit…anything for light rail in Florida

I think they probably mean real skyline more than city.

No question, Salt Lake's skyline is awkward. Some of it is the buildings but a lot is just how it developed. I don't think it's particularly visually and aesthetically appealing like, say, Tampa's skyline:





I find that a decently visually appealing medium-sized skyline.

There's building diversity and height diversity and yet doesn't have a massive tower (so, very similar to Salt Lake). Their tallest is 579 feet. They also haven't had any recent taller towers built in the city.

[Rileybo]

Real cities have better transit/infrastructure, taller buildings with more impressive architecture, more culture, greater diversity of people, greater diversity of recreation, nightlife that goes passed 1am, and grit. I could go on and on. There’s still a lot to like about this place, though.

About those skyline pics..

I wish the time gap between those photos was closer to 10 years and not 20.

While changes to the skyline are obvious to people like us.. to the average visitor, even the average resident, SLC doesn’t look any different than it did in 2004. If tomorrow every development completed in the last 20 years vanished from the skyline, I don’t think most people in the valley would ever notice.

I thought Astra would have a greater impact on the skyline, but it really kinda just blends in. We now have two towers taller than the COB that don’t look it lol.

[Rileybo]

Originally Posted by Comrade

I think they probably mean real skyline more than city.

No question, Salt Lake's skyline is awkward. Some of it is the buildings but a lot is just how it developed. I don't think it's particularly visually and aesthetically appealing.

It would be interesting to see our skyline with the exact same buildings, but have them standing in different spots to create a better shape.

[bob rulz]

Originally Posted by Paniolo Man

Seems awfully convenient that this historic building was damaged beyond repair 4 years ago and they've just decided on that now.

I want details about the damage, I don't buy it.

Plenty of other sites for towers.

Wasn't this building built in 1957? It certainly looks like it. If it is a renovation of an old building (seems to be conflicting posts about that in here, unless I'm misunderstanding which buildings are being talked about), then it's been long-since gutted of any historic value. It's incredibly ugly. Yes there are lots of places for more height, but not all of them are candidates for redevelopment.

[delts145]

I'm all for the redevelopment of that site. There are any number of options that would be far more attractive than what's there now. With the LDS Church involved, whatever will be built should be high quality and reasonably attractive. Any good guesses as to what might be going up?

I like the look of Salt Lake's skyline, especially from particular vantage points. The rub is that as someone correctly pointed out recently, "they would all be so much better looking if they were a lot taller." That's true, but imagine if in this pic The WTC, Westgate, 99 West, The Regent, Chase, 222, as well as adding in Hyatt, Astra, and Wells Fargo and they were all twice as tall. Maybe we should play a longer game here, that really is now much shorter than past history would suggest. Salt Lake is now on the cusp of some dramatic moves that I predict will involve breaking the glass ceiling heights on the skyline. Salt Lake's development timelines have shortened significantly over the past 20-plus years, even during some pretty rough economic times nationally. The upcoming Olympics and its runup of the next ten years will focus a great deal of attention on downtown. Salt Lake City and its greater Metro are already receiving an ever-growing, endless parade of praise from national and international publications and talking heads. The first Olympics helped to expose a huge audience nationally and internationally to the Wasatch Front's and greater Utah's stunning scenery and accessibility. The day will come soon when we'll look at the 300' and 400-footers as an attractive street-level presence complementing the 500'-700' new tallest's.

Who wants to take on an update of this once very popular photo? No doubt TRAX must be included, climbing the bench along with the current skyline in the background. Actually, this was the second generation of the original, which had some very cool special photo-shopping effects added to it. Comrade or anyone who might have a copy of that original please post it.
Meanwhile, it would be so cool if on one of Salt Lake's glorious bluebird springtime days someone anyone would update this pic. Paniolo Man, I know you're tempted, but perhaps we should give you a break for once. J/K, have at it!

Photo provided by Wikipedia Commons

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[locolife]

Originally Posted by EPdesign

I don’t understand what makes it not be a real city. Salt lake is impressive. No, it’s not a large city…but it holds its own.

I’m impressed with how Salt Lake is coming along, especially now that I’ve lived and experienced other cities.

Also…I would give anything for light rail…edit…anything for light rail in Florida

Miami has an above ground people mover, it’s pretty nice actually. I take it you’re not in that part of Florida?

[EPdesign]

Originally Posted by locolife

Miami has an above ground people mover, it’s pretty nice actually. I take it you’re not in that part of Florida?

You’re right about Miami. I forget their transit system down there.

Also…you all make some valid points. I guess I just like rooting for my beautiful, smoggy, bland, but trying, city by a lake.

[Blah_Amazing]

Having a water body next to a major city (ocean, lake, river) is often critical to making a downtown look nicer and more impressive than it actually is in photos. SL doesn't have that, so downtown looks subconsciously 'dry' by comparison, since us humans are naturally drawn to water.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by Blah_Amazing

Having a water body next to a major city (ocean, lake, river) is often critical to making a downtown look nicer and more impressive than it actually is in photos. SL doesn't have that, so downtown looks subconsciously 'dry' by comparison, since us humans are naturally drawn to water.

A lot are, but many are not. Denver, Phoenix, Vegas, Atlanta, Houston (sort of), Dallas, Los Angeles. It doesn't have to be by water. I actually prefer mountains myself, water and mountains are the best (Vancouver, BC is one of my favorites) but I'd take mountains over water personally.

[Atlas]

I will try to get some good SLC shots in the coming weeks, delts! That view that you posted is my favorite angle of the SLC skyline, despite the lack of mountains.

I am hoping to replace the SLC skyline shot from 2011 on the SLC wikipedia with something up-to-date.

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by Blah_Amazing

Having a water body next to a major city (ocean, lake, river) is often critical to making a downtown look nicer and more impressive than it actually is in photos. SL doesn't have that, so downtown looks subconsciously 'dry' by comparison, since us humans are naturally drawn to water.

Eh. I still think this looks more aesthetically appealing than Salt Lake's skyline (which also has the added benefit of mountains):



Though, a lot of it is just due to two towers, which I like:

100 North Tampa



Truist Place