Big Plans on Campus

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Big Plans on Campus

UC+D looks at bustling construction activity at the U of U in Salt Lake, UVU in Orem, and Utah Tech in St. George.
By B. Garn

From the new buildings for the University of Utah’s School of Medicine that are reshaping the upper campus of the state’s flagship university to plans for a major campus expansion at Utah Tech University (UTU) in St. George, a surge of projects planned and funded several years ago are now taking shape on university campuses from Logan to St. George.

DFCM boss takes helm at U of U

Developments in the planning and construction departments at the state’s college campuses were not limited to concrete and cranes.

In March, Jim Russell, longtime Director of Utah’s Division of Facilities Management and Construction, took over as Associate Vice President of Facilities at the University of Utah.

With the U of U in the midst of a considerable building boom, Russell said he was brought on board to overhaul management operations in the department and try to simplify and improve the process of planning and building on campus.

“It costs more to build on this campus, and it always has," said Russell. "Some of it has to do with compact sites and campus utilities, but there is also a lot of input from a lot of people. There are Deans, donors and doctors who all have their ideas of how things should be done. We’ve also gotten to a place where contractors don’t believe a budget is a budget because it never is. I’m trying to improve the process overall. We are going to try and do better with setting expectations.”

Russell said he expects fewer projects to be delivered under CM/GC contracts in the future. The largest new project for the University—a new hospital and health care center in West Valley City— has an estimated budget of $850 million and will be delivered using design-build.

Russell said he was very familiar with the issues dogging projects at the university before taking the helm at the department. As DFCM Director, he regularly got calls from contractors, architects and university personnel expressing frustration with the process of building on campus.

“I knew what I was getting into before I came,” he said, flatly, prompting a need to reorganize and streamline facilities and construction operations.

In the last legislative session, U of U President Taylor Randall committed to state leaders a reduction of $100 million in ongoing operational costs at the institution. To that end, Randall launched an “operational excellence initiative" at the beginning of the year that involves a deep dive into procurement at the U, as well as an evaluation of building maintenance and project management teams.

“One thing that strains us is there are a lot of separate project management and facility groups on campus,” Russell said.

“Are we adding value by doing it ourselves? If we’re not, then maybe we should be looking at the private sector for [better ideas].”

Russell has made some organizational changes including combining Construction and Facilities Management into a new, consolidated division known simply as U Facilities.

“We’ll have a project management group and a facilities management group," he explained. "This way we’ll try and manage the full lifecycle of the building. You can see if things put in place on the design and construction side are being employed on the operational side and providing the value you expected,” he said.

As for planning the next 100 years of growth, Russell said a team from University of Utah Real Estate and the international design firm NBBJ are at work on a new campus master plan.

Fort Douglass to Become

Part of U of U Campus

In mid-August, the U.S. Army reserve officially announced its operations would be moving to property near the Utah National Guard’s Camp Williams in Bluffdale. After the move, the approximately 50 acres of property and buildings will become part of the University of Utah campus.

“That property is key to the future of the university,” said Russell.

He noted the buildings, primarily in the Officers Circle, which are on the National Register of Historic Places, will be preserved and likely renovated for use by the university.

Current and Future Building Plans

Russell and his team is also overseeing a considerable number of current and future projects that will soon break ground. In addition to the new $850 million health care facility in West Valley, the new $150 million Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine continues to rise on the east end of campus. In addition, the $190 million John and Marcia Price Computing and Engineering Building broke ground this spring and the $50 million James LeVoy Sorenson Cener for Medical Innovation on the university’s medical campus is currently under construction and slated to open in 2026.

At the South end of campus, a new $40 million baseball field and grandstand is taking shape. At the west entrance to campus, a $97 million renovation and expansion of the historic William Steward Building will house STEM courses for the applied sciences program.

The Huntsman Cancer Institute will add a new facility in the Utah County city of Vineyard, while the Huntsman Mental Health Institute will add a $185 million research facility, along with the $47 million Kem and Carolyn Gardner Crisis Care Center.

Russell says near-term projects will focus on creating more housing on campus to meet President Randall’s goal of adding 5,000 more student beds to the campus by 2030.

Russell says he feels that he was able to develop a sustainable and efficient system during his time at DFCM and wants to do the same in the new position at the state’s flagship research university.

“It has been a pleasant surprise to find out just how many amazing employees we have here. I want to build a system that can help them keep improving and progress and develop in their careers,” said Russell. “There are good people here, but they haven’t had the training they need, and they haven’t really been trusted to manage their projects. I want to train people and delegate and trust them to make decisions. Trust will be the key to our success.”

UVU gets is Kicks; Plans for Vineyard Expansion

The state’s largest public university—Utah Valley University—continues to expand its enrollment and footprint. The main campus in Orem is landlocked, but beginning in 2011, the state began purchasing property approximately six miles north and east in Vineyard to accommodate future growth. UVU now owns 240 acres in Vineyard, and a master plan envisions the space being used for athletic, health care and student housing, with a goal of integrating well with the neighboring community. The site currently hosts four athletic playing fields and according to Kurt Baxter, UVU Senior Director of Engineering and Space Management at UVU, the school’s Health Professions building is expected to break ground on the site in the near future.

On the Orem campus, the $100 million Scott M. Smith Engineering and Technology building, named for the Qualtrics co-founder, broke ground in 2023 with an expected completion early 2025.

A new 22,000 SF soccer stadium on Clyde Field, which will serve the men's and women's soccer teams, broke ground in April with completion expected August 2025. Designed by Salt Lake-based Method Studio, the stadium will have seating for 3,000 with locker rooms, concessions, restrooms, a press and broadcast box, and eight VIP suites.

“According to our athletic director, it will be one of the nicest facilities in the western United States,” said Baxter.

Also in the athletic realm, Baxter said Salt Lake-based VCBO Architects was recently selected to program a new Student Athlete Center. With an expected budget of $25 million, construction is expected to begin early 2025.

Baxter said a 6,319 SF expansion of the McKay Education Building is currently underway and should be complete by end of the year. The project added a one-story addition to the existing building and will include a welcome area, study spaces and additional classrooms.

Adding Beds and Land at Utah Tech

Like UVU, Utah Tech in St. George is a landlocked campus that recently purchased nearby land for future expansion. Jon Gibb, Director of Facilities Planning and Construction for the state’s southernmost higher education campus, said Legislative funding allowed the school to to purchase 183 undeveloped acres 8.5 miles south of the main campus, near the Desert Color neighborhood. Gibb said a recently completed masterplan by VCBO lays out the framework for future campus growth.

“We started with the intent of master planning the new acreage, but quickly realized we still have lots of opportunity on the main campus," said Gibb. "We decided to finalize a plan for the main campus and then have a proposed 20-year plan for that new property we are calling South Campus. We expect to accommodate 18,000 students on the main campus, which is about 110 acres. We can’t grow out, but we can grow up. Once we get past what we can accommodate, things will go to the south campus, that we envision to be an innovation district for research and programs for more advanced degrees.”

Gibb said part of growing the current campus involves creating more student housing, like the newly completed Campus View Suites III. The 164,000 SF, 563-bed residence was designed by Method Studio and completed in June by Sandy-based Layton Construction. It includes private study rooms on each floor and a small grocery store on the street level. Gibbs said the project was delivered using a design-build contract, which he said worked well.

“We did design-build on Phase I because we needed housing quickly,” said Gibb. “We loved the results so much we just did it for the next phases as well. If you do your leg work up front to specify what the minimums are, the architect and contractor can work together to deliver it. We got everything we wanted—and more.”

Gibb said CM/GC delivery is being used for two other large-scale projects on campus, the General Education Building at the center of campus, which is currently underway, and the renovation and expansion of the 1980’s era America First Performing Arts Center, formerly the Cox Auditorium.

“It will be a $23 million renovation of the auditorium to accommodate traveling shows and concerts that need high quality performance space,” said Gibb. “We’re upgrading everything and adding practice spaces and improving the lobby.”

Gibb said efforts are also underway to improve the general campus infrastructure.

“We don’t want to get behind on that—we spend about $5-6 million a year upgrading and expanding infrastructure. We’ll connect our heating and cooling tunnels into a loop in the coming year, which will increase our efficiency.”

Gibb said the school recently upgraded its chiller system from three to five towers. In addition, UVU is focusing on small conservation improvements that offer a high return, like changing lighting to LEDs and installing low-flow plumbing fixtures.

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Kimley-Horn SLC Office Marks 10 Years

By By Brad Fullmer • 04 Oct, 2024

It's been a decade since Kimley-Horn, one of the nation’s top engineering and design consultancy firms, launched an office in Salt Lake, and by all accounts, the Wasatch Front market has been a boon to the civil engineering firm, with local leaders feeling highly optimistic about its future success and growth in the Beehive State. The Salt Lake office was opened by Zach Johnson in 2014, who previously spent time in three other Kimley-Horn offices including Sacramento, Orange County, and Denver, with three total people comprising the initial staff. The firm's Denver office was providing consulting services for the Utah Department of Transportation and put together a market analysis regarding expanding into its neighbor to the west. "The market analysis we put together showed we should have had an office in Utah 10 years previously [2004], so we decided to plant a flag and open an office," said Johnson, who leads the office along with seasoned Salt Lake office practice leaders Chris Bick, Leslie Morton, and Nicole Williams. Like any new start-up endeavor, it was rough sledding initially, but strong regional support and the sheer tenacity of boots-on-the-ground marketing started paying off, with explosive growth happening along the way. "I would describe the first few years as lean," said Johnson. "We had to be creative, we had to be scrappy to capture work and rely on our partners across the country, folks who had clients in Utah and rely on those relationships. Those first two to three years were about relationship building and knocking on doors that didn't always open. It was a lot of fun."

A Future Paved with Intentionality

By Taylor Larsen • 03 Oct, 2024

Nearly 90 minutes into a conversation with Dave Edwards and Bruce Fallon, the two remembered a story about the values of WPA Architecture from years before. Fallon was in talks with the principals at the firm to define values for the rest of the company. Longtime ownership, with decades of experience founding and building up their own firm, weren’t against the idea, but the idea of formalizing it all seemed inconsequential. Fallon had been a Principal with the firm for ten years and finally asked longtime Principal Alan Poulson (who retired in December 2023), ‘What motivates you?’ to which [Poulson] answered, ‘Providing for my family.’ The thought has stuck with Fallon and Edwards ever since. “It drove [Poulson] in everything he did,” Fallon said. “He was excellent in everything he did so he could provide for his family.” Now that the two lead WPA as Principals, they have looked to embrace excellence through intentionality—in purpose, relationships, and work ethic—that will lead the firm to new heights.

Marmalade Plaza Bearing Fruit

By Taylor Larsen • 01 Sep, 2024

Tucked just beyond the hustle and bustle of 300 West in Salt Lake City is something sweet: Marmalade Plaza—the collaborative work between third-generation Utah family business Cal Wadsworth Construction and landscape architects and designers at Salt Lake-based LOCI. Amidst the lovely built features and vegetation installed around the half-acre site, what catches the eye is the giant bronze apricot statue on the project's westernmost edge. Statue artist Day Christensen, with his last name so fitting for the Beehive State, delved into the Marmalade District’s rich past as the inspiration for his work on “Apricot,” saying the area’s steep streets were named after quince, apricot, and almond fruits as residents used those fruits to make and sell marmalade. The sculpture, he said, serves as a constant reminder of the neighborhood's origins and the ingenuity of its pioneers. That ingenuity in design and execution was a theme as the project team delivered a public space befitting Salt Lake’s historic Marmalade District. The plaza design took off in 2014 with LOCI Principal and founder Michael Budge and his newly minted firm working on their first project. Instead of funding delays that pushed construction back, Marmalade Plaza would need to wait for future development to finish before starting. The landscape architect said the half-acre parcel was always set up as a public space between existing developments at that time (Marmalade Library; Capitol Villa Apartments) and future projects (Harvest Apartments; Grove at Marmalade townhomes). Public involvement quickly settled on a design priority that remains top of mind for many Utah residents—water. “From day one, we wanted a water feature,” said Budge. The plaza would honor the body of water that existed on site previously, one the Army Corps of Engineers had to ensure wasn’t a wetland. The LOCI team designed an abstract wetland in its place, complete with water boxes for the future rushes to be installed. Winning the construction bid was Cal Wadsworth Construction’s entry point to test their collective chops. “We thought that all of the concrete work was exciting,” Jordan Wadsworth said. As Director of Operations for Cal Wadsworth Construction, the design that called for board-formed precast cubes, cast-in-place bridges and steps, plus sandblasted artistic flair would push him and his team to innovative heights. Turning the site from a post-development mud pit into an urban oasis was challenging on such a tight site. One small entrance on the southern edge for concrete trucks and construction teams required high-level sequencing to get the right people on-site at the right time. Connection and coordination were always at the forefront, especially with how the project integrates with the nearby buildings. That LOCI was hired by Harvest Apartments, adjacent to the to the north and west, to design their landscaping and more was a huge win, ultimately helped to site the complex’s three apartment buildings and combine features where landscaping seen in project dovetails perfectly in the other, flowing together like the plaza’s 100-ft-long water feature. “It’s not an easy design and hats off to the contractors who built it,” said Budge. Not easy is an understatement, especially with the ipe (pronounced E-pay) Brazilian hardwood decking. Dense, heavy, durable, and challenging meant a few hundred drill bits were sacrificed at the altar of construction. But the team persevered, developing a system to make cuts so clean that the hardwood boards appear pre-engineered. “All of it was hand done,” Wadsworth said of the work with the decking. Precision and care were standout features of the Cal Wadsworth Construction team as they self-performed cast-in-place concrete benches with the gentlest curves, three concrete bridges, as well as concrete steps across the northern end of the water feature—all surrounded by two lines of paperbark maple trees. “It’s refined,” said Budge. “It’s less so someone’s backyard, but [more] an urban plaza you’d find in a major city.” The slight bend in the form of the benches, water feature, and around 1,600 SF of decking are not only a circulation effort moving people from southwest to north or vice versa, but a testament to the work from the Cal Wadsworth team to artfully construct such complicated forms. The design also called for precast concrete cubes ranging in height between 9” - 3’9” in height. Built by Brigham City-based Mountain West Precast, each of the cubes was picked and placed close to the final location before a forklift positioned each of them on their respective bolts before epoxying them in place. Wadsworth said it came together “like a Tetris puzzle.” The project team dug deep into their problem-solving bag after the fire marshal refused to allow the grass turf of LOCI’s original design. The landscape architects pivoted to replacing the turf with two 25-foot-plus sycamore trees to help cool and shade the plaza’s 5,000 SF of concrete hardscape.

Movin' on UP!

By Doug Fox • 01 Sep, 2024

There’s a new jewel in the crown of Silicon Slopes architecture: the visually stunning Traverse Heights Office Building. The six-story structure, housing 57,000 square feet of Class A professional office space and featuring a floor-to-ceiling curtain wall glass facade, sits like a queen on a bluff overlooking the I-15 corridor in Lehi and the expanse of Utah Valley. If you’re traveling through that section of north Utah County, you can’t miss it on the east side of I-15. “It is impossible to exit the freeway and not see this building standing large, perched over Silicon Slopes,” said Jared Francom, Project Director for Okland Construction. “It stands apart by location, approach and visibility.” The building, owned by Woodley Real Estate, came with a price tag of around $25 million. In addition to the ownership group, tenants include Bank of America, Fidelity Investments, Solidarity Capital, Paramount and family offices for both Curt Doman and Todd Pederson, among others. “We have had way more demand than space,” said Eric Woodley, owner/developer. “It certainly stands out and is a unique offering. The offset design really sets it apart from the rest [of the buildings in Silicon Slopes].” According to David Anderson, Design Principal for Babcock Design, the core concept of the building differed significantly from the typical five- and six-story workplace projects his firm has created along the Silicon Slopes stretch of I-15. “On the heels of several projects designed around 100,000-plus-square-feet tech-sector tenants that prioritized efficient floor plates and large-scale shared amenities, this project targeted smaller, high-end user groups with an interest in a refined, iconic space,” Anderson said. “As a result, efforts were made to sculpt a unique exterior form with shifting floor plates cantilevering high above the ground plane, which provided extensive usable outdoor space.” COVID Conundrums The journey from land acquisition in 2020 to certificate of occupancy in 2023 turned out to be no easy feat. Mentally, Wasatch Front residents may be a few years removed from the peak period of the COVID-19 pandemic but its architectural impact is still being felt and the Traverse Heights Office Building is a prime example. The project started during the mid- to latter stages of the pandemic in 2021 and was designed amid the challenging fallout of material shortages throughout the building industry. Year-long lead times and cost escalation on structural steel products at the time tilted the design decision toward a post-tensioned concrete structure, Anderson said. But that strategic switch spawned its own set of COVID-created conundrums. “By the time construction ensued, of course, there were concrete shortages throughout the state due to shutdowns of several cement production plants,” Anderson said. “Okland Construction worked miracles to acquire concrete during the shortage and significantly minimized delays in the construction schedule.” Choosing concrete both for the look and the difficulty of procuring steel, Woodley noted that the concrete shortage hit during the mat-footing pour — basically the most inopportune time possible. “It was a nightmare to work through, but we had a great construction team to help us navigate it,” he said. On a positive note, the decision to use post-tensioned concrete affected both the overall form — achieving some dramatic cantilevers in the office space – as well as the feel of the interiors, said Anderson. “Exposed architectural concrete sheer walls and solid concrete slabs created a crisp, smooth and dramatic interior space with exceptionally high ceilings,” he said.

ASLA Pulls Up a Chair

By Taylor Larsen • 01 Sep, 2024

It’s hard to keep track of all the decisions made about the built environment happening in Utah. A new commercial design here, permitting there, and the beginning and end of so much master planning. It’s great for the A/E/C community, certainly, but for Bryce Ward and the other board members at the ASLA Utah Chapter, landscape architecture deserves a seat at the table where those decisions are made. Bringing in their unique point of view, ASLA Utah is aiming to break through the misunderstanding in their field to plan, design, and steward environments across Utah for residents and visitors to thrive. There’s the mission, and there’s the practice. Ward explained that landscape architects are expert generalists, meaning he and his fellow professionals are trained to think beyond the site boundaries. “Buildings are part of an elaborate natural and development fabric,” Ward, recently elected Trustee for the ASLA, said. “Landscape architects think through the impacts development has on the built and natural environments.” After all, their work is much more than shrubs, benches, and a walking path. The plan is in motion to build toward a cohesive whole, where every facet of the built environment is considered—with landscape architecture joining the party and improving projects across the state. For Lars Erickson, ASLA Utah President-Elect, the matter is one of dollars and cents in a straightforward equation: clients that value and pay for good design get greater value in their projects. “Even the simplest of landscape projects can create greater value for our environment with a little more effort,” Erickson said.

Big Plans on Campus

By B. Garn • 01 Sep, 2024

Students at Utah’s higher education campuses this fall likely found themselves navigating around construction fencing or finding once familiar pathways to class temporarily blocked as concrete trucks rumbled by and tower cranes cast shadows across campus. From the new buildings for the University of Utah’s School of Medicine that are reshaping the upper campus of the state’s flagship university to plans for a major campus expansion at Utah Tech University (UTU) in St. George, a surge of projects planned and funded several years ago are now taking shape on university campuses from Logan to St. George.

Precast Market Ready to Take Off in Utah

By Taylor Larsen • 01 Sep, 2024

It’s not rocket science. According to Kevin Martin, Geneva Pipe & Precast’s General Manager for the Orem office, precast concrete is a simple, albeit different, solution for a construction problem. “We’re still building a metal cage and building a mold and putting concrete around it,” he said. Simple, sure, but effective. With a huge concrete market to capture, expanding infrastructure with new and growing communities, and a broken labor market showing no signs of repair, the trajectory for precast is upward and onward as the new year approaches. No Rest for Precast Each of those interviewed spoke to how there is not just an insatiable demand for precast in Utah, but that they regularly field calls from out of state to supply jobs across the West. As a byproduct, one trend that may be gone forever is the winter slowdown, especially as development ticks up across the state. Said Martin, “We used to use the winter months to build up inventory, but the new way of doing things is putting pressure on us to keep production high year-round.” Demand for neighborhood infrastructure products is here to stay, especially for growing cities around the state. Developments are popping up across Utah County in Lehi, Saratoga Springs, and Eagle Mountain, as well as an exploding demand from the southward development in places like Payson, Santaquin, and even Benjamin, nestled snugly just south of Spanish Fork. Precast, those interviewed said, is ready to meet it with pipe, box culvert, manholes, and more. With expanding development combined with the growing capabilities of precast concrete, "slowdown" might not enter the precast vernacular again. Lee Wegner, Regional Sales Manager for Contech Engineered Solutions, noted the possibilities that opened up with the Latter-day Saint temples in the 2010s changed the game on precast concrete in Utah. High-level detail and molds brought awards and new possibilities, with rope-like features and scalloped corners doing the best impression of skilled masonry work. “Almost every piece was unique,” said Wegner of their work on the Payson Temple. While unique is not the word precasters want to hear in such a standardized process, the pride of seeing what their work accomplished in the final build helped to reimagine what was possible in precast shops. “We’re pushing the envelope a lot more and are much more adaptable to the needs of the market.”

Innovative Infrastructure

By Milt Harrison • 01 Aug, 2024

Crews from Whitaker construction installed a massive 63-inch diameter HDPE pipe for North Davis Sewer District that allows treated and cleaned wastewater to flow to the Great Salt Lake, putting water back into the ecosystem while combatting dropping water levels. (photos courtesy Whitaker Construction)

Brilliantly Executed Spaces and Thinking

By LADD MARSHALL • 01 Aug, 2024

The Intermountain Chapter of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) held its annual BEST Awards competition on May 16 at The Natural History Museum of Utah, with the UVU Sorensen Student Center capturing the "BEST of the BEST" and "BEST Play" categories. BEST stands for Brilliantly Executed Spaces & Thinking, and the IIDA awards are among the most prestigious given to interior design professionals in both residential and commercial markets. An array of unique projects were submitted, projects that go beyond painting a pretty picture while truly encompassing great design in function, form, and style. IIDA Intermountain recognizes that successful interior design requires a collaboration of many disciplines including consultant teams, project managers, vendors, contractors, and more. These awards are a celebration of that collaboration and of dynamic overall design happening throughout the Intermountain region.

Next Gen

By Brad Fullmer • 01 Aug, 2024

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