Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by Blah_Amazing

https://citizenportal.slcgov.com/Cit...howInspection=

Location: 1861 S 1300 E

A small project I hadn't heard of before has filed Site Development documents.

The project called 'Central Park V' is located directly south adjacent to the recently opened Allen Park across from Westminster College and will be comprised of 5 townhouses.

These are the two houses set to be replaced by the new townhouses:

I'm okay getting rid of the dinky brick apartment but that white house next to it is a gem, even if a bit rundown.

Once again, a little bit of Salt Lake's fabric is removed for a bland, sterile townhome.

Man, this city won't be content until it strips away every bit of its history.

[Utah_Dave]

Originally Posted by Orlando

Interesting. Out of the 4 or so proposed residential towers, I thought this one was the least likely. The fact that they made an announcement through the Trib is a confident and bold move and makes me feel more confident that this one will be built. I think it's a race now between them all. I don't think all will be built, but most of them will. At my work, I am hearing of all sorts of proposed towers in the works. Can't disclose any of it yet, but interesting times indeed.

Do share some basic rumors please! Us casual guys would appreciate a good tease. Also, you should post some of your ideas for design. Particularly 25-45 story buildings without a flat roof that would be with in reason for the budget friendly developers to incorporate. We are really spoiled right now with projects in the works, so as much as I would like a dramatic roof line, I’m pretty happy with the quantity of high rise projects. It seems like a matter of time now. Just 5 years or so ago most thought it would be 20-30 yrs before a 500 footer came along. I think that timeline is much short now. Especially if the mixed use building does well

[RC14]

Originally Posted by Orlando

..At my work, I am hearing of all sorts of proposed towers in the works. Can't disclose any of it yet, but interesting times indeed.

I take it these are towers that have not yet been rumored here?

[felixg]

I must ask, why all the hate for flat top skyscrapers? Not trying to start an argument I just genuinely don’t get it. I understand I’m one of the few that truly thinks our current projects are some of the most exciting architecture salt lake’s seen since the 1930s, but I don’t really know what, non glassy “borg cubesque”, alternatives you guys are advocating for? I mean it’s a new building, do most just want something more postmodern? San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle aren’t particularly pointy, and it’s not like salt lake is already completely flat either. Between the One Utah Center, Promontory Tower, World Trade Center, West Gateway Tower, and the Walker Center we have loads of roofline variety for a skyline of our size. Additionally, it seems that a majority of the most objectively exciting projects in the county are pretty flat themselves

Yes I would welcome something more interesting here, but it’s strange to see all the disdain for, when compared to everything else in the city, extremely new and interesting designs. Anyone care to shed some light?

[Utah_Dave]

The flat tops wouldn’t be as big an issue if we had more variation in height in my opinion. I’m pretty happy with what’s happening now though. It seems like SLC skipped a step in gradual height increases. We went from 5,6, and 7 story residential to 20-30 story residential developments so I’ll take it. Kensington tower and Main Street tower designs, all though flat top, have enough interest for me. But a nice shape or crown on top is nice to have generally speaking.

[ThePriceWentUp]

If the vibe of a city was based on its skyline I would be more mad about the design of some of these new projects. Having engaging street activation is so much more important and the quality of materials alone makes these new developments good additions. I'm really hoping this Sundial tower impresses tho.. Renderings soon?

[Orlando]

What's the sundial tower?

[Atlas]

Thanks for the update on 255 S State, RC14! Hopefully it doesn't end up like the last project there.

Originally Posted by Orlando

What's the sundial tower?

It's a privately announced (leaked) 23-story, 425,000 sq. ft. office tower at ~450 S Main in the works from Hines. It was mentioned awhile back as having a design reminiscent of the Bank of America in NYC.

[delts145]

Could someone refresh my memory, has there been a proposal yet for this site? So many proposals, I forget what's going where sometimes.

Parcel at 900 E on the S-Line

Pic By Atlas

[Blah_Amazing]

Originally Posted by delts145

Could someone refresh my memory, has there been a proposal yet for this site? So many proposals, I forget what's going where sometimes.

Parcel at 900 E on the S-Line

Pic By Atlas

I believe that is the '900 Element' apartment project (though it was named 'Sugarmont Apartments' in the docs, in the drawings it says 900 Element). It filed for Design Review last year. It was brought up in a post by Atlas at the time.

4 floors. 77 residential units.

[Orlando]

Originally Posted by Atlas

Thanks for the update on 255 S State, RC14! Hopefully it doesn't end up like the last project there.
It's a privately announced (leaked) 23-story, 425,000 sq. ft. office tower at ~450 S Main in the works from Hines. It was mentioned awhile back as having a design reminiscent of the Bank of America in NYC.

Oh ya. I've seen the renderings. It's not as sleek and slender as the Bank of America Building. It's got a nicely designed facade though. I'm guessing that the owners are playing the wait and see game with how the post-pandemic work from home situation shakes out. Many people are now preferring to work from home rather than come in to the office everyday.

[Atlas]

Originally Posted by Orlando

Oh ya. I've seen the renderings. It's not as sleek and slender as the Bank of America Building. It's got a nicely designed facade though. I'm guessing that the owners are playing the wait and see game with how the post-pandemic work from home situation shakes out. Many people are now preferring to work from home rather than come in to the office everyday.

Ah well, I'll ask the burning question then: does it have a flat top?

[ctobsl]

[QUOTE=Blah_Amazing;9267244]https://citizenportal.slcgov.com/Cit...howInspection=

Address - 144 S 500 E

Project Description:

This thing has been in the works for the past 4 years with 2 different plans. I posted them on here a while ago, but can not find them. I use to live right next to the office building portion. The house and office was used by the homeless for quite some time now. One good thing is, they finally demolished the whole site yesterday. So maybe they will start doing construction soon?

[Marvland]

Originally Posted by Utah_Dave

The flat tops wouldn’t be as big an issue if we had more variation in height in my opinion. I’m pretty happy with what’s happening now though. It seems like SLC skipped a step in gradual height increases. We went from 5,6, and 7 story residential to 20-30 story residential developments so I’ll take it. Kensington tower and Main Street tower designs, all though flat top, have enough interest for me. But a nice shape or crown on top is nice to have generally speaking.

BINGO. Would be such an issue if all these weren't capping out at 375-450 feet. There is some naturally occurring variation in height based upon natural gradients and perspective. I think one of the lowest hanging fruit would be an observation tower, perhaps branded with the Olympics. Please don't yell at me but sort of like a less dated Space Needle or the Calgary tower. Something reaching towards the sky with intention. Nothing over 600 feet. Make it some sort of pollution scrubber. South side is a vertical farm. SOMETHING RAD AND AMAZING in SLC please. The money is here now. We need some rad buildings. Gimme a goddam MLB team and some irresponsible building spending! ... Sorry about that. That felt good.

[Marvland]

Originally Posted by Orlando

I completely agree with you about the flat tops being problematic.

In Seattle, there is language in the land-use code and Design Guidelines about enhancing the skyline. All highrises go through Design Review up there...actually, almost all buildings do.

I think the Salt Lake City will need to update their land-use code to require the tops of these highrises to not be all flat.

I agree Orlando. I used to be against this idea, but I've grown tired of the local yocal lowest-common-denominator, proforma obsessed designs here. It's changing somewhat with all the out of state developers in town which is great. But many of the outcomes of that code are truly terrible. Love to see some code changes.

[Orlando]

Here are some contemporary highrises that show a little more creativity than just a boxy flat top:

[Boz]

"That's a huge bitch!"

[Stenar]

Originally Posted by Always Sunny in SLC

These guys are complaining of a non democratic process, but in reality this has ground through years of democratic processes and this small group is deciding they should be able to at the last minute stop elected officials from doing their job. It is apparent there is no popular support for preservation or more accurately rebuilding this theater at the cost necessary. These people are stopping a democratic process because of their personal preference. Enough with subverting the will of the people and their elected representatives.

No, that's not true. SLC bought the theatre with the express position of restoring it and then Mayor Biskupski decided on her own that the city needed to dispose of the property. There was no public input. Everything we'd been told before that was that the city was going to restore it.

[Atlas]

If you want to see lots of brand new, massive towers with all kinds of crazy designs, I recommend browsing the Toronto compilation thread on this forum. It's insane how much construction is happening there; they have over 500 projects in their CSA proposed or under construction taller than 100 meters.

[Blah_Amazing]

Originally Posted by Atlas

If you want to see lots of brand new, massive towers with all kinds of crazy designs, I recommend browsing the Toronto compilation thread on this forum. It's insane how much construction is happening there; they have over 500 projects proposed or under construction taller than 100 meters.

You know its bad when a new(ish) condo in downtown Salt Lake (mainly City Creek (since nothing else has been built)) is more expensive than many luxury condos in Toronto.