Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[JMK]

Early concepts revealed for two Salt Lake City homeless shelters; public forum tonight
SL Trib
http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/...forum-tonight/

More than nine months after their controversial siting, two new Salt Lake City homeless shelters inched closer to life with Tuesday’s release of preliminary design concepts.
Next up: more public feedback.
The proposal (seen above) from Salt Lake City-based ajc architects shows two-level, all-inclusive shelters that not only house 200 beds but a wide range of homeless services — including courtyards, kitchens, barbers and kennels.

The shelter designs will be presented in a panel discussion from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at The Leonardo, 209 E. 500 South, which was remodeled by ajc. Three more open houses follow Tuesday and Wednesday.
The shelter at 275 W. High Ave. is gender-segregated, with concepts showing 160 beds for men on the ground level and an additional 40 beds for women upstairs, while the shelter at 131 E. 700 South is for women alone and would house all 200 on the ground level.
At the urging of Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, the shelters’ nonprofit owner, Shelter the Homeless, awarded the project to ajc architects in June after some hesitation initially about costs.
But developer Kem Gardner said he had persuaded ajc architects to lower its bid by $800,000 to an undisclosed amount, and the nonprofit’s board was impressed that ajc architects had teamed with an experienced shelter builder, Portland’s Dave Otte, of Holst Architecture.

Principal Architect Jill Jones said at an August Central City Neighborhood Council meeting that she had been “stalking” Salt Lake City Deputy Chief of Staff David Litvack for nearly two years because of her interest in designing the new shelters.
The design process might continue until April 2018, Jones told the community council, at which point officials hope to break ground.
The shelters need to open by July 2019 if elected officials are to meet their deadline of closing an 1,100-bed shelter at 210 S. Rio Grande St. — thought to be too large and too exposed to area criminal activity, as well as an impediment to development at the western edge of downtown.
A third, men-only shelter at 3380 S. 1000 West, in South Salt Lake, is also being designed by ajc architects, though documents related to Tuesday’s presentation didn’t include any concepts for that 300-bed facility.

The documents don’t mention costs, either.
A request for proposal posted by Salt Lake City earlier this year, before it was known for certain that Shelter the Homeless would become the eventual owner of the new shelters, said the estimated construction cost for each shelter would be about $10 million.
Legislators approved putting $27 million toward the effort in February on the assumption that the total cost for three new resource centers — including land purchases (which added up to $8.4 million) and design — would be about $40 million.
The same $40 million figure was again quoted at a September meeting of the Shelter the Homeless board.

An early design concept, produced by Salt Lake City-based ajc architects, for a new homeless shelter at 131 E. 700 South that will serve women.


An early design concept, produced by Salt Lake City-based ajc architects, for a new homeless shelter at 275 W. High Ave. that will serve a combination of men and women.

[jubguy3]

700 beds to replace 1100... ridiculous.

[jubguy3]

Has anyone heard news on the Laporte project? Is it going to sit abandoned for the next 20 years?

[Always Sunny in SLC]

Originally Posted by jubguy3

700 beds to replace 1100... ridiculous.

Less capacity is not a problem if they can reduce demand. I think by focusing on getting people in transitional housing and treatment and reducing bed capacity you send the message to those who are in need that we are here to help, but not in the business of running a vagabond motel for those not serious about trying to improve themselves or who might be thinking about coming here from out of town and heard they can get a lot free stuff.

[asies1981]

Post on the resource centers with the proposed floor plans.

[bob rulz]

Originally Posted by jubguy3

700 beds to replace 1100... ridiculous.

Quality over quantity. The fewer beds there are, the more incentive there is to emphasize transitional housing and treatment centers. Of course, whether that will actually happen or not is another question.

The design of these seems promising, but I am no expert on what design choices work best for the homeless.

[TonyAnderson]

Originally Posted by jubguy3

Has anyone heard news on the Laporte project? Is it going to sit abandoned for the next 20 years?

Bank's holding on to it cause they want their money back. Or something like that. Short answer: yes.

[Always Sunny in SLC]

Originally Posted by TonyAnderson

Bank's holding on to it cause they want their money back. Or something like that. Short answer: yes.

I would think that this project will not move forward until another developer is found who finds it financially viable to building despite having to tear down all that steel. I would think that means it would only pencil out for someone building an expensive structure such as an office building or something equivalent in cost. Sit down, grab some popcorn because this is going to be awhile. We probably will go through 4 more iterations of LeeBuddy, Projects, Airport Vids or Urbanboy before this moves.

[asies1981]

The county unveiled the art installation on the DA Building. On a side note, I talked to Held Properties about 400 S and W Temple. I can't say too much yet (at their request) but what they have planned is better than the Void Center and more appropriate for the area. I'll get renderings etc by the end of next week so I'll have more information soon I promise. They are a California developers and they bought the property outright so financing will be less of an issue for them.

[nushiof]

This Amazon HQ2 story has been fascinating to follow.

This media outlet ranks SLC as the #1 option based on a review of Amazon's stated criteria.

https://qz.com/1074386/the-hard-choi...-city-for-hq2/

[ajiuO]

Does anyone know the reason that the name Plumb Street was removed from 400 N in the West Capital marmalade area back in the day? With all the rehab goin on in the area I wonder if the city would consider changing the name back to Plumb. Were any other street names on west Capitol Hill changed?

[jubguy3]

Originally Posted by asies1981

The county unveiled the art installation on the DA Building. On a side note, I talked to Held Properties about 400 S and W Temple. I can't say too much yet (at their request) but what they have planned is better than the Void Center and more appropriate for the area. I'll get renderings etc by the end of next week so I'll have more information soon I promise. They are a California developers and they bought the property outright so financing will be less of an issue for them.

HAHAHAHA oh no it really is as bad as we thought it was going to be. It looks like a 5 year old made it in MS Paint... maybe someone can steal one of the thirty decommissioned clocks from the gateway and put them on it. Oh my god that is really bad.

This worries me because Gordon heuther is designing the terminal "canyon" and based on what we've seen so far it's stunningly beautiful but if he's able to make a monstrosity like this then I hope that same sort of failure doesn't extend itself to the airport canyon. Also the glass sculpture in the escalator area isn't all that nice either... I would have been amazed to see something like the hylozoic veil (the weird living plastic thing at the Leonardo) installed in that space.

Anyways this is atrocious. I thought from the renderings that it was just some filler artwork and whatever went there would be better. And this isn't some sort of grudge I have against modern art, this legitimately looks like a high school dropout's quarterly graphic design project.

[airhero]

Originally Posted by asies1981

The county unveiled the art installation on the DA Building. On a side note, I talked to Held Properties about 400 S and W Temple. I can't say too much yet (at their request) but what they have planned is better than the Void Center and more appropriate for the area. I'll get renderings etc by the end of next week so I'll have more information soon I promise. They are a California developers and they bought the property outright so financing will be less of an issue for them.

Wow that art is...interesting.

I forgot about the Helds building office space at 400 South West Temple. It borders my dream block for Amazon, so perhaps it's even more space, in addition to a portion of Patrinely's 600,000 sq ft, that could be offered to Amazon as lease space. Tho I'm feeling more and more every day that the prison site will be chosen. I hate that we've heard nothing.

I'm excited for the renderings!

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by jubguy3

HAHAHAHA oh no it really is as bad as we thought it was going to be. It looks like a 5 year old made it in MS Paint... maybe someone can steal one of the thirty decommissioned clocks from the gateway and put them on it. Oh my god that is really bad.

This worries me because Gordon heuther is designing the terminal "canyon" and based on what we've seen so far it's stunningly beautiful but if he's able to make a monstrosity like this then I hope that same sort of failure doesn't extend itself to the airport canyon. Also the glass sculpture in the escalator area isn't all that nice either... I would have been amazed to see something like the hylozoic veil (the weird living plastic thing at the Leonardo) installed in that space.

Anyways this is atrocious. I thought from the renderings that it was just some filler artwork and whatever went there would be better. And this isn't some sort of grudge I have against modern art, this legitimately looks like a high school dropout's quarterly graphic design project.

Good Lord, that's awful looking. At least I'm not the only one who's first though was that it looked like a clip-art giraffe print.

County unveils distinctive, provocative public art in downtown Salt Lake City
District Attorney Sim Gill is thrilled with the work of artist Gordon Huether; social-media critics pan it as ‘awful,’ with comparisons to a dead giraffe.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/...alt-lake-city/

[arkhitektor]

I realize that there is a lot of art that I just don't get, but see how others can find beauty in it, but this is just tacky and awful. Random patterns, and random law words in random fonts with RANDOM SPACING BETWEEN THE LETTERS. It looks like something a middle-school student designed as a mural for the wall in the school cafeteria.



And don't forget- this cost $325,000

[Comrade]

God that's hideous. Such a downgrade from what we could have had.

[Wasatch Wasteland]

Originally Posted by arkhitektor

I realize that there is a lot of art that I just don't get, but see how others can find beauty in it, but this is just tacky and awful. Random patterns, and random law words in random fonts with RANDOM SPACING BETWEEN THE LETTERS. It looks like something a middle-school student designed as a mural for the wall in the school cafeteria.



And don't forget- this cost $325,000

Don't worry... you get it loud and clear. This goes against every basic design element and rule of aesthetics. It is neither integrated into the style or visual pattern of the bulding, nor juxtaposed in the right way for it to stand out postively. The color scheme doesn't seem to follow any of the basic types of color patterns, nor does it so adamantly reject them in a way that is aesthetically unique. It does not complement the bulding, and it doesn't contrast it either. Too many patterns are happening, it has no obvious path of movement, and the combination of rectilinear forms and organic forms doesn't work and distracts from the piece's intention. I won't even mention the text. That... I'm sorry it just doesn't look good. I'm sure it looked better on the screen than when it was built in real life. It probably looks better on its own than with the bulding. But only a little. With such a negative reaction from the art-uneducated public, the proffesionall feedback from the art/design community will be much worse.

[Stenar]

Originally Posted by nushiof

This Amazon HQ2 story has been fascinating to follow.

This media outlet ranks SLC as the #1 option based on a review of Amazon's stated criteria.

https://qz.com/1074386/the-hard-choi...-city-for-hq2/

I’m not sure how this article ranked Denver as having a better transit system than SLC.

[grasscom]

Originally Posted by Stenar

I’m not sure how this article ranked Denver as having a better transit system than SLC.

I'm not sure what you mean and if I do then I'm not sure where your credibilities are, Denvers Transit is far superior to Salt Lake. To say otherwise is homerism at its best.

[Jiffy]

Originally Posted by Stenar

I’m not sure how this article ranked Denver as having a better transit system than SLC.

Salt Lake is no where near Denver when it comes to transportation.

https://www.ecowatch.com/top-25-amer...882184791.html

https://www.usnews.com/news/slidesho...transportation

https://smartasset.com/mortgage/best...transportation

I can't find anything to support Salt Lake has even close to a better transit system than Denver. Not even on a same level at least either.