Progress on Birkhill @ Fireclay:

The first phase is nearing completion and models should be open in time for the Salt Lake Parade of Homes in August:

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...d/100_1529.jpg

EIFS and Brick are complete on the courtyard side of the first building:

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...d/100_1530.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...d/100_1531.jpg

Brick work continues on the front:

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...d/100_1532.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...d/100_1533.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...d/100_1534.jpg

thanks for the pics arkhitektor. I was wondering about that project. ... I really love the design of the building with this project. real classy.

Birkhill is going to be such a cool project!! The future for TOD's in Utah look bright!!

I love this development Ark!! Very classy, and thanks for the great update pics. You must be very proud to have been involved with this project, I know I sure would be.

Sandy ponders a move on up
Taller buildings, if approved, could allow creation of a downtown

By Rosemary Winters
The Salt Lake Tribune

SANDY - Lively, walkable streets, trolley cars, an urban forest and a new skyscraper-studded skyline someday could transform this southern Salt Lake Valley suburb.
"There's no real hub" in Sandy, said resident Bruce Bryner. "If you're in downtown Salt Lake, you know you're downtown. [Sandy has] the opportunity to be the second downtown."

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9724390?source=rss

I know most people on here don't like this about Sandy, but I say good for them!

:previous:
I agree. Way a go Sandy.
Also I love those pics of the Fireclay project. That project is coming along very nice. But I fear that phase two might be a ways away due to the slowing of the housing market. :(

Well, we diss Sandy because it's not urban enough. So, if it becomes a city with a viable urban downtown, "then great." They keep referring to all three towers as thirty story. As has been mentioned by other forumers, I would like to see them make one of the towers 45 stories, and shorten the other two. I suppose though, it will make it easier to sell the tower space in all three, if they are equal in height prestige.

:tup: Sandy has mapped out its future many times before - and touted its status as "the other downtown." But Knowlton said the group's insights revealed a shift in attitudes about what Sandy could be. Dolan pointed out that earlier master plans showed mostly office parks and a maximum of two-story structures in the area.
Now, Sandy seems ready to say, "So long, suburb."


* On Tuesday, the Sandy City Council will hold a public hearing and decide whether to eliminate a 10-story height restriction in Sandy's central business district.
* The code amendment would pave the way for three 30-story towers at the planned Proscenium project.
* The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 10000 S. Centennial Parkway.

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http://www.hamlethomes.com/SiteData/...levationA2.jpg

Note: Be sure to check out Ark's pics of Birhill at the SkyscraperPage Forum under Transportation/Salt Lake City Debuts. Show your local pride and leave a comment. Also, view the updated Birkhill Video with Voice-over.

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:cool: :cool:

An historic icon opens for service - Taking a trip back in time
Vintage roadside diner offers taste of nostalgia
The classic 1940s-style eatery is set to open for business today at site near Oakley


http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9726799?source=rv

http://166.70.44.68/TribPhoto/photos...r83sg_0628.jpg
The Road Island Diner, a classic 1940s diner that was moved to Oakley, Utah last year from Rhode Island will open for business this weekend serving up comfort food and a taste of nostalgia.
(Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune )

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/liv...~1_Gallery.jpg
Servers prepare for this weekend's opening of the Road Island Diner, a classic 1940s diner that was moved to Utah last year from Rhode Island. The historic diner will be serving up comfort food and a taste of nostalgia in Oakley. (Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/liv...~3_Gallery.jpg
Teshia Larsen, whose server name is "Hattie," and Tyler Galovich, server name "Floyd," hold up a burger and Coke as the rest of the wait staff fills in behind at the Road Island Diner. (Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune)

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Big changes for Herriman: $1 billion town center project set to transform growing suburb

By Steve Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune

HERRIMAN - In the center of this city, the word "historic" is written in fine print beneath the numbers on many street signs. Farm equipment is scattered across wide-open properties; sheep and horses roam fenced fields.
But an ambitious billion-dollar town-center project is about to change the rural face of the 14,600-resident city that incorporated with barely 800 in 1999.
The smatterings of projected amenities proffered by The Sorenson Group are expansive, with some intending to serve the entire Salt Lake Valley's southwest quadrant. Among the biggest additions: a $30 million recreation center, a new county library, a community lake, ice-skating rink, playground, splash park and movie theater.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9733717?source=rss

Herriman to attain $1B heart

By Amy Choate-Nielsen
Deseret News

HERRIMAN — New construction may be disappearing from many west-side cities in Salt Lake County, but here, where a newly announced, billion-dollar development is waiting on the horizon, the situation is drastically different.

http://deseretnews.com/photos/midres/5704393.jpg

All totaled, the project — which should begin within 90 days and finish its phases in 10 years — will occupy more than 375 acres in the heart of Herriman.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,5143,700238979,00.html

:previous:

:banana: Wow Steve, Very nice!! I like the design element a lot. I'm also elated to hear that Sorenson is involved. That means BIG money and DEEP pockets, which is something that will carry this project to its fruition. That particular area is very impressive for it's beautiful topography too. I'm just amazed at what is happening to the southern end of Salt Lake Valley, and the northern end of Utah Valley.

:previous:

Looks like another lame "lifestyle center" to me.

I would definately not say lame Wasden, but I do think I understand a little bit what you're saying. Just looking at the rendering and what facilities are to be included, I think it will be a big plus for that area of the Valley. If I were to be able to make any change based just on the rendering, I would pepper the Village Core with some strategically located architectural focal points. Something like a Neo-Classical Courthouse/library of sorts etc. Something to give the Village a layered feel. In France and Italy, even the sameness of certain style's is broken up often with iconic, architectural focal points. These focal points really set the whole tone of the village as unique and beautiful.
For example, notice that brown building to the left side of the rendering. That's one spot that could use something taller, with some attractive and intricate Neo Classical, Georgian, or whatever details.

Don't get me wrong Delts, its a lot better than say- a big box style development- but I still don't like it. Comparing these new age developments to a town center you would find in Europe is like comparing Venice Italy to the Venetian Las Vegas. One of these is going to meet the wrecking ball for something bigger and better while another merits a multi billion dollar dike for it preservation. Great cities develop organically over time, you don't just come in, drop a billion bucks, and give a city a heart/soul. Besides, not pictured behind all the cute mock-up facades in the rendering is a vast expanse of asphalt where the good people of Herriman are leaving behind their Excursions to access the artificial heart of their city. Hardly like in Europe where you can live ABOVE your local baker, walk down to the town square, hang out and have a drink. One of these mentalities favors authenticity and sustainability, the other just simply tries to appear that way.

If we really want to leave behind the Big-box retailer/strip mall age then lets do just that. These "towne centers" are the same old idea only the parkings in the rear.

I wasn't aware that behind those so called phony fronts lurked a vast sea of asphault. I had just assumed, as I first pointed out that Sorenson would be offering a classier set-up.

As a European I would not presume that American's are incapable of developing a charming and beautiful city center at this juncture in time. Especially given what I'm seeing from developments such as The Cottonwood, CCC, Market Station and others that are now coming on line.

To imply or somehow try to lecture a European on how Europe is the answer to Urban Utopia is hilarious to me. I've lived above bakeries, and a myriad of commercial enterprises in both American cities and my own native Europe. Yes, the Wasatch needs more of that type of urban living. not because it is the only 'true urban religion,' and we should all just worship at the altar of that one 'true urban god,' but because people should have choices.

As a former European I cherish having a full plate of American choices. I relish the soon to be realized opportunity of having an electric or at least a very affordable CNG fueled vehicle, that will hold more than two people if I need. I love how this area is not only developing an efficient freeway, and surface street system in order to commute to work if necessary, but also an effective mass-transit alternative for those who choose. I relish the thought of the convenience of having all my shopping and office needs as close as a few minutes away. And unlike the overwhelming majority of my fellow Europeans, I like having the opportunity to own a reasonably comfortable detached house w/yard in which to raise a family of more than one child, if I should so choose.

I would hope that Wasatch Fronters will continue to have a developing metro that will encourage a broad range of choices, and not fall under the pseudo-glamourized tourist view that somehow Europe is Urban Utopia. Most Europeans have given up a tremendous amount of freedom of choice in their mode of travel and the type of dwelling they can choose to live in. Those are choices and options only for the wealthy in Europe

Let's shatter another little myth about my native Paris or former Roman and Venetian homes. These are beautiful cities that I am as familiar with as the back of my hand. But let's get real. Much of that so-called organic development created over many centuries of time is a lot of fairy tale. If not destroyed by war and invasion or fire, much of what would have been considered architectural treasures, pre-dating today's European structures, fell to the wrecking ball of their day. It was the habit of rulers to regularly destroy entire large sections of cities and their architectural treasures, in order to erect their own idea of self worshiping homage. This was typically accomplised in one giant swoop of the septor. I'll take here and now with community input, a city council, a Mayor Becker or a CCC over a long list of Napolean like Kings and Anarchists, who would throw down what would be trillions in todays dollars to create their lifestyle centers. All while often bankrupting a nation and using an impoverished, slave labor/general populace to build them. ;)

:previous:

Very well put.

:previous:
:previous:

I second 215 on that one.

Very well said Delts. :worship:

I agree with Delts. Now, can you say "native" and "european" one more time? :)

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Agreed!!