Salt Lake:Official development news thread

[SLC Projects]

Slow news day?

[blazefirelight]

I get the feeling not too much is going on...

...but i also get the feeling the next post will be a news story to disprove what I just said...

[ski_steve]

I win

U Hospital expansion begins



Within a few years of its opening, the Huntsman Cancer Hospital had no free beds available. To handle the increasing number of cancer patients, the Huntsman Cancer Foundation and the U broke ground Oct. 31 on an extension to the hospital that will double the number of beds and open updated centers and technology for cancer care.

“There are 4,000 new cancer patients every year,” said David Entwistle, CEO of U Hospitals and Clinics. “Today’s groundbreaking does not come a day too soon.”

Construction on the project will begin in spring and should be completed in mid-2011, said Mary Beckerle, executive director of the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

The $110 million expansion project has long been a goal of Jon M. Huntsman Sr., co-founder of the Huntsman Cancer Institute. The additional 120,000 to 156,000 square feet designed to connect to the northeast lobby entrance of the existing hospital will allow physicians to treat patients with various types of cancer more efficiently.

Current Building


http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/year_recap/hospital_expansion_begins

[ski_steve]

plus

U restructures buildings for earthquake protection



The U stepped up to remodel the Park Building in Presidents’ Circle when pieces began falling onto the sidewalk, but the historic building isn’t the only one that needs fixing.

After three years of documenting building safety and inspecting for natural disasters, the Department of Environmental and Health Safety found multiple buildings on campus that are in need of remodeling, including OSH, the Merrill Engineering Building and the Fletcher Building.

Besides OSH, Merrill and Fletcher, Shaub said the top seven buildings that need remodeling include the Eyring Building, a high temperature water plant and a biology building.

“We’re going to get to all of them,” said Shaub. “We are moving as quickly as we can.”


http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/news/1.1098485

[ski_steve]

more

D.C. looks to get House vote -- with Utah's help

Washington » Utah likely will play a key role in obtaining voting rights for the District of Columbia's 600,000 residents, even if some Utah officials are wary of the effort.

Legislation to give the heavily Democratic District of Columbia its first full-voting member is once again expected to be coupled with a fourth U.S. House seat for Republican Utah.

The legislation could quickly move through the next Congress and to incoming President Barack Obama's desk early next year. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., a proponent, says it's a "foregone conclusion" that the state will be instrumental in the effort.

"There are going to be some voices in opposition, but the structure is set as far as the numbers and political will for this to happen," Huntsman said in an interview Friday.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11226437

[delts145]

Originally Posted by SLC Projects

Slow news day?

Could turn out to be a slow news year, as far as new building projects go.

[SLC Projects]

Originally Posted by delts145

Could turn out to be a slow news year, as far as new building projects go.

I hope not. That would suck.

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by SLC Projects

I hope not. That would suck.

Well this year is probably going to suck more than a 2 dollar hooker in a cheap Vegas nightclub.

[delts145]

True, but I think the evolution of CCC will be pretty cool, especially with all of the great update pics from people like T-Mac. Also, allot of medium and smaller projects in progress. Hopefully, by the time all of the many projects under construction start winding down, there will be a significant uptick in the economy and new construction under way.

[UTPlanner]

I would rarely if ever advise anybody to read the Ogden Standard-Examiner but there was an editorial that had an interesting take on the Wasatch Front as a whole. I found it to be fairly sane. I'll add the link below if interested.

http://www.standard.net/live/opinion/topofutahvoices/158817/

[delts145]

That was an excellent little article UTPlanner. Thanks loads for posting it!

[blazefirelight]

I was over looking at the Classic SLC Pics thread, and in a discussion about the road side, this thought occured to me:

I wish that a bunch of HUGE companies would just be sitting aroung thinking: "I'm tired of New York and LA. We need a new place where we can make our hubs. Not a city that's very well known but still has a good sized population in the metro area." And then they'd think of Salt Lake City, and then they'd get to planning! Sure, they'd have to raze a few of the small, older buildings, but there is PLENTY of empty space on Main Street that the tenants of the old buildings could fill up while their old buildings are being torn down for bigger and better things!

Then maybe the new developers could subdivide the blocks, build the city way up with new headquarters and offices, bring new business to downtown, new people to work at these businesses, increase the population and make Salt Lake City skyrocket!

....but that's all just a dream. And a wishful one at that. Oh well.

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by UTPlanner

I would rarely if ever advise anybody to read the Ogden Standard-Examiner but there was an editorial that had an interesting take on the Wasatch Front as a whole. I found it to be fairly sane. I'll add the link below if interested.

http://www.standard.net/live/opinion/topofutahvoices/158817/

That was a good article, thanks for the link.
...and the Standard Examiner is not that bad a paper at all. The Salt Lake papers go to such extremes to cater to their respective ends of the political spectrum that I've given up on them both. I take the Examiner at home now instead.

[SLC Projects]

I thought this was cool.


"The population of the Wasatch Front metropolis is 2,301,099. This is larger than the populations of the Las Vegas metro and the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro. The population of the Wasatch metro is only 60,000 less than the Denver-Aurora metro."
from the Standard Examiner

[urbanboy]

I bet Salt Lake City Downtown could have been almost as large or even larger than Denver's Downtown had we not sprawled out.

Many think that all of Arrow Press Square should be sacrificed for a convention hotel. However, I believe it would be more feasible to build the hotel on the convention center's property, which would save the cost of buying up more land.

These rectangles are the same size (one is Arrow Press Square, the other is a poor use of space):

[SLC Projects]

Maybe they need the grass area as well. How do you know that's how much land these guys are going to use for the hotel?

[urbanboy]

Well there are many Power lines below the grassy area that belong to Utah Power and Light. These would be too expensive to move for this type of project, therefore I don't think a convention hotel will occupy that space. This was the reason why this space was not selected as a possible location for the broadway-scale theater.

[urbanboy]

The Power of Cities

http://www.ted.com/index.php/themes/the_power_of_cities.html

[RFPCME]

Urbanboy: Nice work on the rectangles. Makes the point nicely about the Arrow Press property being the same size as the vacant land at the convention center. A question, though...both parcels of property seem awfully small for a 1,000 room hotel, even a high-rise.

[RFPCME]

Originally Posted by UTPlanner

I would rarely if ever advise anybody to read the Ogden Standard-Examiner but there was an editorial that had an interesting take on the Wasatch Front as a whole. I found it to be fairly sane. I'll add the link below if interested.

http://www.standard.net/live/opinion/topofutahvoices/158817/

UTPlanner: Like Delts, I want to thank you for posting this article. The author (Michael Vaughn) makes enormous sense with the point that communities along the Wasatch Front will reach greater heights if they work together, instead of competing. The notion of cooperative communities, each playing an important role in the development of the entire region, set me to thinking.

The role of some communities in the United Front of Wasatch are immediately apparent: Salt Lake City should serve as the intellectual and artistic hub of the area; Ogden, with its relatively diverse population and its history that predates SLC (Think of Jim Bridger), would serve as a wonderful center for culture and history; Provo, home to BYU...come to think of it, there's probably not much of a role for Provo in the United Front of Wasatch (They would not want to join anyway, believing it would be some socialist plot); Murray and Midvale would emerge as a center for healthcare and health insurance, at least until the new administration breaks up the IHC monopoly; North Davis County is already well on its way, along with Southern Weber County, to being a high-tech/aerospace center; South Davis County could be the world's largest combination Used Car Lot/Oil Refinery; Western Utah County--anything on the west side of the lake--could become the National Reserve for the Terminally Provincial (NRTP); Southwest Salt Lake County logically would serve as the buffer zone between the NRTP and civilization; Southern Utah Country would probably secede, along with Provo; Northern Utah Country, far more progressive than its brethren to the south, would be a logical residential area for all other areas (except the NRTP); Western Salt Lake County, much of which is contaminated with heavy metals from Kennecott Copper (aka Rio Tainted-o), provides a great opportunity for medical research, as well as alternative energy development because of the constant wind; the East Bench of Salt Lake County does not factor in because its residents think they are there only temporarily before they relocate to their real homes in NYC, Boston, and San Francisco, which leaves Sandy...ah, yes...Sandy...Well, every city has a role to play and every metropolis needs a landfill.