Masonry Magazine August 2012 Page. 22
Salt Lake City's
City Creek Center
BY JEFF ELDER AND ALAN JOHNSON
While the economic conditions of these last five years have crippled most cities, the timing of City Creek Center has been like manna to the people of Salt Lake City. The Downtown center resembled a hive of bees as 1,100 construction workers toiled on a 23-acre site more than three city blocks - adjacent to the Mormon Temple. A unique and stringent set of codes and standards had to be met during the transformation of the old Crossroads mall into a vibrant, new mixed-use area.
IN 2003, LEADERS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS (LDS) PURCHASED THE CROSSROADS MALL, following years of declining sales and after Nordstrom, a major tenant, threatened to leave. The decision was made to redevelop the area adjacent to Temple Square and keep it economically and culturally vibrant.
Many of City Creek Center's design decisions hinged on whether to tear down two malls constructed in the 1970s and several old buildings adjacent to the mall, or to upgrade the mall to newer seismic code requirements. Retrofitting the existing buildings would be too costly, so a new master plan was developed and extensive design teams and consultants were brought on board.
20 MASONRY August 2012 www.masoncontractors.org The Voice of the Masonry Industry