Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[mattreedah]

Originally Posted by Atlas

Nice, those are higher resolution than I've seen. That part of the city will really be transformed in the next decade by the RDA project and all of the new housing. Hopefully we can get some momentum going on the Rio Grande Plan before something is built that precludes it. For now, it's still officially considered a "barrier to development." The other possibility that has been floated is using the Depot as a permanent home for the farmers market, which is also less cool than using it as a train station in my opinion. I hope that the farmers market instead gets a nice building directly west of the fully-functional Rio Grande station. .

Rio Grande needs to be a train station again. Full stop. I challenge anyone to do the virtual tour of union station in denver and not drool at the possibilities.

Hatman’s proposal is pretty awesome but it is unlikely as it would cost an insane amount of money upfront and require the demolition of some pretty new apartments - of course that money could be recouped long-term by tax revenue gained from the land development which is an advantage of the plan.

My alternative idea would be to re-locate the Rio Grande building (or at least the great hall) a block west to where the hub is now. That way you don’t have to move ANY railroad tracks (or trax). You don’t get some of the upfront costs (or downstream money) but it just seems more doable. Plus, the station is no longer a wall-like barrier to development. You can still do station center, but the focus is on the opposite side. UTA is planning on redeveloping and replacing that hub anyway - might as well do it right.

[meman]

I was walking downtown past the Hyatt-regency hotel this morning about 7:30
or 8 this morning when I noticed an interesting phenomenon. The sun was glinting on one of the glass panels being installed when I noticed an intense heat for a few yards along the sidewalk.
Hopefully this does not become a problem, especially for the tenants in the 175 South West Temple building directly across the street from the new hotel.
I remember watching a program on TV recently about a skyscraper ( I think in Chicago) that was reflecting such intense heat into a next door skyscraper that the panels had to be replaced to be less reflective and heat-inducing.

[rockies]

I wish the Rio Grande plan could happen but there seems to be literally no official interest at all and it looks like they are moving forward with just labeling the station as a barrier to development. I wouldn't even mind as much if they had some kind of plan to turn Salt Lake Central into something that isn't an ugly parking lot.

The renderings are disappointing and I imagine it's going to be a ghost town just like the hardware district. Not to be too pessimistic, but didn't the city kill that 190ft tech company building around here by not allowing more height? Unfortunately we'll probably end up with whatever is the cheapest to build while earning the most profit and not something that is thoughtfully planned for the future. I hope I'm wrong but this entire plan so far just leaves more to be desired

[Stenar]

Originally Posted by Blah_Amazing

I'm really worried that I am going to live to see the end of The Great Salt Lake. I hope not, but we keep taking water from the rivers that feed into it, so it is going to happen eventually.

It's my understanding that we replace most of the water that we take out of the rivers that feed into the lake. Most or all of the treated sewage water is dumped into the Jordan River.

[Blah_Amazing]

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

We got some updated looks/ renderings for the 144 South Apartments

Location: 144 S 500 E

110 residential units. 6 floors above ground.













Prior sketch/rendering:

[delts145]

^^^
Looks like that will be a welcome infill over the burnt-out house and nondescript two-story office that's there now. Other than a dumpy little building on the southeast corner of 1st South this will pretty well complete both sides of that stretch of 500 E. between 2nd and 1st So, at least for the time being. I guess they could opt to someday replace the single story buildings still remaining. At least all of the other properties are well maintained.

[Utah_Dave]

Originally Posted by Stenar

It's my understanding that we replace most of the water that we take out of the rivers that feed into the lake. Most or all of the treated sewage water is dumped into the Jordan River.

All water that’s is used for landscaping and agriculture, and a small portion of household use would have made it to the GSL but instead is lost to vegetation and evaporation. I believe the bear river is the largest river to feed into the GSL and it is heavily used for agriculture that would have otherwise flowed into the GSL. So not much of the water we use goes back into the GSL unfortunately. There will be many problems that arise from losing the great salt lake. Obviously there are industries that rely on the lake, Ecological problems will occur, lake effect snow will diminish and will effect tourism and also SLC drinking water supply will have negative pressure applied to supply. Eventually dust storms will be pretty bad, more heat will be added to the local areas as the earth bakes in the sun instead of the water moderating the solar energy input. This is probably just the beginning and some items listed may have a very small negative effect while others will be more apparent as the lake dwindles. I hate to be alarmist about it but there are many consequences that will add up and will need to be solved sooner then later. Conservation of water can have an immediate impact but as growth continues we will need to find a way to add to our regions water supply via pipelines or canal/aqueducts otherwise we will end up with no lake and Phoenix like water restrictions and vegetation. However adding to the water supply will be costly and politically difficulty. Hopefully we can get some really good water years soon so we can hold steady.

Thanks for reading

[Blah_Amazing]

Originally Posted by Utah_Dave

All water that’s is used for landscaping and agriculture, and a small portion of household use would have made it to the GSL but instead is lost to vegetation and evaporation. I believe the bear river is the largest river to feed into the GSL and it is heavily used for agriculture that would have otherwise flowed into the GSL. So not much of the water we use goes back into the GSL unfortunately. There will be many problems that arise from losing the great salt lake. Obviously there are industries that rely on the lake, Ecological problems will occur, lake effect snow will diminish and will effect tourism and also SLC drinking water supply will have negative pressure applied to supply. Eventually dust storms will be pretty bad, more heat will be added to the local areas as the earth bakes in the sun instead of the water moderating the solar energy input. This is probably just the beginning and some items listed may have a very small negative effect while others will be more apparent as the lake dwindles. I hate to be alarmist about it but there are many consequences that will add up and will need to be solved sooner then later. Conservation of water can have an immediate impact but as growth continues we will need to find a way to add to our regions water supply via pipelines or canal/aqueducts otherwise we will end up with no lake and Phoenix like water restrictions and vegetation. However adding to the water supply will be costly and politically difficulty. Hopefully we can get some really good water years soon so we can hold steady.

Thanks for reading

Yeah, I agree. This is going to be a serious concern going forward, especially if we don't deal with the state's agriculture, since they consume the vast majority of water in the state.

[Blah_Amazing]

Originally Posted by delts145

^^^
Looks like that will be a welcome infill over the burnt-out house and nondescript two-story office that's there now. Other than a dumpy little building on the southeast corner of 1st South this will pretty well complete both sides of that stretch of 500 E. between 2nd and 1st So, at least for the time being. I guess they could opt to someday replace the single story buildings still remaining. At least all of the other properties are well maintained.

Yeah, I'm glad that they decided to break up the facade rather than having it be totally flat. I'm also glad they include retail space enough for a coffee shop.

I think it will look fine, especially since it's a midblock project.

[Blah_Amazing]

https://citizenportal.slcgov.com/Cit...howInspection=
1628 West 700 North
1632 West 700 North
1640 West 700 North

Some lot consolidations were filed for a couple rundown properties along 700 North. It will be interesting to see if anything goes in there.

[Blah_Amazing]

Three Creeks Confluence Park

• Video Link

[Blah_Amazing]

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

Residential building permits have been filed for the 30 residential unit Ville 9 project.

Location: 1045 North 900 West

[Blah_Amazing]

Originally Posted by Atlas

Nice, those are higher resolution than I've seen. That part of the city will really be transformed in the next decade by the RDA project and all of the new housing. Hopefully we can get some momentum going on the Rio Grande Plan before something is built that precludes it. For now, it's still officially considered a "barrier to development." The other possibility that has been floated is using the Depot as a permanent home for the farmers market, which is also less cool than using it as a train station in my opinion. I hope that the farmers market instead gets a nice building directly west of the fully-functional Rio Grande station.

I think the designers showed those renderings at an RDA meeting back when they were presenting the idea of making the promenade west from the Rio Grande less linear. The last map shows the older idea of a straight-line promenade lined with trees while the renderings show the newer idea of a more chaotic, less traditionally straight street. I'm not sold on the latter idea, personally, and I like the look of a straight, grand avenue that frames the Rio Grande with trees.

I don't think I mind either version in front of the Depot to be honest. I understand what you are saying about the straight-line design. Being someone that likes formal and crisp lines, this would really adhere to my aesthetic as well.

However, I also like the overall designs of the staggered road they have here. I understand that making the road wavy is a traffic calming technique - I just personally think they should just remove cars from the promenade in front of the Depot all together. Just make it pedestrian only going east-west - with the north-south crossroads intersecting.

[Blah_Amazing]

Originally Posted by Utah_Dave

Recursion biotech is looking to expand 100,000 sqft of space in the gateway area. They took over the old Dicks sporting goods store that was converted to office space. There is a good article in KSL about it. It’s good to hear a good and rapidly expanding biotech company has a large and growing footprint downtown.

Here is a link to an article on the Recursion expansion: https://www.utahbusiness.com/biotech...ed-use-center/

[Blah_Amazing]

I got bored over the 4th of July weekend and started making this. I noticed a lot of other cities had similar videos for their projects and I felt Salt Lake deserved one as well.

• Video Link

[Marvland]

Originally Posted by Blah_Amazing

I got bored over the 4th of July weekend and started making this. I noticed a lot of other cities had similar videos for their projects and I felt Salt Lake deserved one as well.

• Video Link

Blah, you never cease to amaze me. You're a real asset to this community.

[i2theSKY]

Great job on the video Blah Amazing! It really puts it into perspective how many nice projects are either planned or under construction! Now if we could just convince Zions to build their new headquarters, preferably in the 500-600 ft range!

[ctobsl]

Nice work on the video Blah Amazing!
Always looking forward to great things posted.

[Boz]

The music was certainly not amazing, (blah!) but overall the video is nice.

[DCRes]

Originally Posted by meman

I was walking downtown past the Hyatt-regency hotel this morning about 7:30
or 8 this morning when I noticed an interesting phenomenon. The sun was glinting on one of the glass panels being installed when I noticed an intense heat for a few yards along the sidewalk.
Hopefully this does not become a problem, especially for the tenants in the 175 South West Temple building directly across the street from the new hotel.
I remember watching a program on TV recently about a skyscraper ( I think in Chicago) that was reflecting such intense heat into a next door skyscraper that the panels had to be replaced to be less reflective and heat-inducing.

When I used to work at 222 S Main I noticed some days when walking back from lunch along Main Street that as I approached 222 I could feel the intense heat of the sun reflecting off of the building. It felt like it was scorching the skin on my receding hair line

I also heard about a car being melted from the heat of the reflection from a glass tower in London, not sure if that's true or not.