• Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button

  • Slide title

    Write your caption here
    Button
Family-Focused Design

The senior living market continues to evolve, with Legacy Village of St. George raising the bar with resort-like amenities and an emphasis on creating spaces that feel like home. 
By Brad Fullmer
Photos by Ann Parris/Derek VanDenBerghe, FX Creative

Upon entry at the recently completed Legacy Village of St. George, it becomes immediately apparent this isn’t the average senior care/assisted living facility. 
With a spacious lobby, high-end finishes, copious amounts of natural daylighting, and custom-designed furniture and design elements, the four-story, nearly 290,000-SF facility has raised the bar on what the future of this burgeoning market will be like moving forward.
“There has been a shift in assisted living the past few years, to liven it up so it feels like a resort,” said Chad Beus, Project Architect for Holladay-based Beecher Walker Architects, who works out of the firm’s St. George office. 
Ryan Griffiths, Lead Designer and Partner-in-Charge on this project, echoed this. “It’s been gradual—we started seeing a lot of it around 2006 when we started getting into the assisted living market.”
Beus continued, “You want people to visit and hang out here—that was a main focus. There are some nice amenities here that you didn’t see in senior living a few years ago […] that enrich residents’ lives, but also provide space for visitors and families to interact in and have fun.”

Overcoming Initial Challenges
The project broke ground in January 2020. To compensate for some lost time on the 28-month schedule during those early months of Covid, general contractor Rimrock Construction of Draper had large shipping containers mobilized adjacent to the site for storing equipment, furniture, fixtures, appliances, cabinets, and more to keep things rolling. 
“Schedule-wise we were okay, considering the pandemic impact,” said Rick Spjut, Project Superintendent for Rimrock. “We dodged most of the [schedule] issues. We had 25 shipping containers and stored materials, furniture—anything we might be delayed on. That’s what kept us on schedule.”
Griffiths said challenging soil conditions—particularly with blue clay soils found in the area—forced the design team to spend extra time ensuring the geotechnical aspects were effectively met. 
“Blue clay is a nightmare,” he said, adding that it expands six times in size when it gets wet. “You have to maintain 25 feet between the foundation and the blue clay. We cored the site 12 times and created a rough topographical map of the soils and bedrock. That was one of our big design challenges. It was also a sloped site where we had to cut into bedrock and bring in structural fill. It was one of the longer schematic design phases we’ve gone through.”

Eye-Popping Amenities and Design Features 

High-end luxury finishes are a staple throughout the facility, with scores of eye-popping design elements to appease the senses. Functionality is a hallmark of the overall design, as Legacy Village serves clients on three levels: independent living, assisted living, and memory care. 

Cole Smith, Vice President of Real Estate for Salt Lake-based developer Western States Lodging, said this is the 19th Legacy Village project that his firm has built since 1996. According to him, the trend in senior care facilities is moving towards having all three types of clients under one roof. 

“We like that approach a lot more,” said Smith of the trend that started about a decade ago. “We think the residents like it that much more, having a better sense of community and feeling of home, and not need to bounce around as their [care] needs advance. We’ll definitely keep going on that type of building.”

Smith said Western States Lodging initially started in the mid-’90s with one hotel property, but quickly started its first senior living project—Legacy Retirement of South Jordan—while the hotel was under construction. The company quickly realized the importance of designing senior living projects to be similar to hotel properties in terms of having a high-end hospitality feel but admitted that newer projects like Legacy Village of St. George are becoming considerably nicer as they are starting to appeal to a younger-age clientele. 

Having nicer amenities and high-end finishes “was a function of us doing hotels,” said Smith. “We want to build something that has that hospitality feel for our residents, something that is very comfortable and not feel institutionalized. […] Projects are designed to be appealing to the generation that is coming now—those are the trends we watch.”

Amenities geared toward a younger clientele include a swimming pool and hot tub, a pickleball court, a sports bar and cafe, and a billiard table, along with plenty of spaces with nice furniture to just sit down, relax, and visit with friends and family outside living quarters. 

“The pool, the pickle ball court—it reflects a healthier society,” added Smith. 

The facility includes six dining areas—a main dining room for each type of client plus a private dining room, a bar and grill, and a cafe on the top floor—each of which leads to one of four outdoor courtyard areas, another new design twist based on the facility having a robust 256 units. Beecher Walker also designed the award-winning Legacy Village of Sugarhouse project four years ago, and Lyle Beecher, Principal and CEO of the firm, said the Sugarhouse project was “more of an urban context, that’s the biggest difference. This [project] is one of the larger facilities we’ve designed, so instead of making the courtyard larger, we made multiple courtyards, so it’s got that homey, smaller context. We’ve never seen a [senior living] project with four courtyards.”

Another top-shelf amenity is a “great room” on the top (fourth) floor, a large, dynamic room with floor-to-ceiling glass that offers dramatic views of Snow Canyon and the gorgeous red rock landscape associated with southern Utah. 

“We call them ‘great rooms’—a large family gathering space that guests can reserve for an event, watch a Jazz game, or watch a movie. It’s a place for families to gather,” said Griffiths. 

Beecher said he envisioned what that room could be like when he initially saw the dynamic natural environment. 

“I had been to the site and thought of what the view would be, and we needed to not just capture the view but to capture the sky to contrast the view,” said Beecher. “That’s why you get both [elements] pretty strong from that room.

Spjut said that in terms of senior living projects becoming more appealing visually and amenitized, Legacy Village is among the best he’s ever seen. 

“It fits the community very well,” he said. “I live down here, and this is the talk of the town. It’s a great location with beautiful views.”

“We want to engage the community,” Beecher added about amenities like the outdoor sports area, multiple outdoor courtyards, and the great room. “When you have so many activity options, then the community feels engaged.” 

At the end of the day, the designers want residents to feel like this facility is truly their home, and one their families will love visiting.

“It’s fun to marry the fact that this is a large facility, but this is also someone’s home,” said Griffiths. “You want that resort feel, but you want it to be homey. […] We focused on bringing families here."

“Loneliness is the largest cause of death in senior living communities around the world, so we tried to create an environment where people want to come,” continued Griffiths. The goal of the facility to bring families together is one which owners and architects firmly agreed, and one achieved by providing “an atmosphere that feels like home, that is fun, that evokes an excitement for life—we want to get residents out [of their units], active, and involved with their families.”



Key Indoor Amenities: Six dining venues, including a private dining room and a bar and grill; movie theater; salon/spa; multiple gathering spaces with modern, comfortable furniture and aesthetically pleasing design elements; two exercise gyms; sports lounge; game/crafts rooms. 

Key Outdoor Amenities: Four uniquely designed, open-air courtyards on the inside of the facility; pool/hot tub area; pickleball court and other outdoor game areas; waterfall feature; shaded outdoor areas; walking path around the facility; raised planters and water-wise landscaping. 




Legacy Village of St. George

Owner: Legacy Village of St. George

Developer: Western States Lodging; Garn Development

Architect: Beecher Walker 

General Contractor: Rimrock Construction

Interior Design: Metropolitan Studio

Civil Engineer: Bush and Gudgell

Electrical Engineer: Hunt Electric

Mechanical Engineer: VBFA

Structural Engineer: Wright Engineers

Geotech Engineer: Landmark

Landscape Architect: Citi Design

Concrete: K. Burrows Construction

Concrete: Innovative Concrete

Plumbing Subcontractor: L&L Mechanical Contractors

HVAC Subcontractor: L&L Mechanical Contractors

Electrical Subcontractor: Hunt Electric

Masonry: Sunset Stone

Drywall/Acoustics: Kyco Services

Painting: Accent Painting

Tile/Stone: Set In Stone

Carpentry Finish: SureLine Construction

Carpentry Rough: Zitting Framing Construction

Flooring: Western Wholesale Flooring

Roofing: Noorda Architectural Metals

Glass/Curtain Wall: Alder Sales Corporation

Waterproofing: Rocky Mountain Water Proofing

Steel Fabrication: Construction Steel

Steel Erection: Construction Steel

Excavation: Rogers Construction

Landscaping: Landtrends Inc.

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.

Art of the Grill

By Taylor Larsen • 01 Sep, 2024
Touring the brand name in grilling with Marbe Agee feels fitting, especially as she discussed the design concepts embodied throughout Traeger Grills’ new headquarters. Agee, a southerner and Principal at Method Studio, has helped to build Utah’s office scene by envisioning awe-inspiring commercial spaces for clients, especially here with the firm’s most recently finished work—modernizing a cluster of old buildings and turning them into a clean, 21st-century workplace. “We worked to make sure to not have brik-a-brak or gobbledy gook,” she said of the design, sprinkling our conversation with southern seasonings I haven’t heard used since my dad said “daggum” when referring to the sweltering Oklahoma heat. Committing to those design standards with plenty of existing “gobbledy gook” would be a challenge from concept to delivery. But Traeger Grills, their design team led by Method Studio, and their construction team led by Layton Construction's Interior Construction Specialists, joined forces to perfectly balance the ingredients on site with modern expertise to create a space to savor. Marinade Touring with David Knorr feels fitting, too. The Layton ICS Project Manager has a deep, gentle voice that combines with his beard and flannel shirt to make Knorr a pitmaster personified. He said he does use his Traeger grill often, but his domain is less barbecue, more building. Knorr, Agee, and their teammates at Layton ICS and Method Studio have shared a meal or two with the Traeger team in their ten-plus-year relationship working across multiple projects. Agee and Knorr mentioned watching Traeger go from working on MityLite tables in a Springville warehouse over a decade ago to building the office for the brand name in outdoor cooking with an award-winning project in the Wilmington Flats building in Sugar House. When the time came to envision a “Traeger 2.0” in a 2019 conversation with the Traeger Grills top brass, the designers and builders were ready to leap into action, with construction beginning in September 2021. Agee and the Method Studio Workplace team designed with certain goals in mind: fostering human connection and a place of belonging with a compelling set of work environments that draw you to the space. But, she said, this design needed to stay true to Traeger Grills and how they work while remaining unencumbered by current workplace trends. “Our current philosophy is to create a workplace that is not homeful, or heaven forbid the overused ‘resimercial’ word, but rather something that is better than what employees have at home,” Agee said. What she and her team are trying to capture in their office design is a culture-specific environment “where employees want to be.”

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.
More Posts
Share by: