HOT and Heavy

Dynamic new fire stations are sprouting up across the Beehive State to handle rising population demands, with an emphasis on firefighter health and safety and maximizing space utilization.
By Taylor Larsen and Brad Fullmer

Perched on the east bench of Davis County’s most populous city sits Layton City Fire Station No. 54. The $4.15 million, 10,034-SF building is a picture-perfect firehouse. With some December snow nestled on the rooftop, it looks like Claude Monet painted it there. 

“It blends into the area perfectly,” said Travis Barnes, Superintendent for Centerville-based Hogan & Associates Construction. “The style of that building belongs there.”

Layton City relied on a well-coordinated design and construction team to create a station that would fit the area’s goals.

Starting Grade
The City and UDOT, during construction of the nearby US-89 reconstruction, readied the site for the eventual station that would allow fire trucks and ambulances to perform their lifesaving work. 

Building grades were different than anticipated and necessitated a change, according to Eddy Hogan, Project Manager, who worked with Jim Poloncic of Murray-based Think Architecture, to place the firehouse lower than originally designed. Doing so would ultimately save the city money on site work.

Siting the building correctly was imperative, as it would allow a complete 360-degree passage of fire trucks around the building. The site accommodates various emergency vehicles, with this “drive-thru” concept, positioning the building so that drivers can have clear views down the adjacent roadway in both directions when exiting the facility. 

Brad Wilkes, Fire Battalion Chief for Layton City, said a close working relationship helped create trust among the entire project team and instill confidence they were building a station fit for the growing city’s needs. 

“Working closely with Brad was interesting in understanding the fireman’s perspective and learning what was important to what we were building,” said Hogan.

Layton’s four stations receive 8,000 calls yearly including medical emergency, house fire, brush fires, and other critical services. 

To respond to those expanding needs, Poloncic designed a 10-ft longer bay to better accommodate seven vehicles including a ladder truck, brush truck, heavy rescue truck and ambulance. 

No Time to Waste 
According to Hogan, stick framing the building proved challenging with supply chain issues, with a shift in procurement practices aiding the process. Getting trusses to the job site during a volatile period of lumber availability and pricing required quick responses from owners to ensure purchased materials would match both the vision and budget.

It helped not just the pivot to new materials but guaranteed certain elements stayed true to the original design. Diesel scrubbers on the bay ceiling were a prime example, with Wilkes communicating that the AirHAWK brand was more important than getting a different brand of diesel scrubber. 

Other decisions shifted away from the original design. The project team decided on a more resilient and cost-efficient epoxy floor than the more aesthetic one, which would not deal as competently with the wear and tear of dozens of firefighters utilizing the building. Forgoing fancy finishes helped to speed the project along, but more importantly, helped Layton City honor its commitments to residents.

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Layton City Station 54 overlooks the city from the east bench. The meeting room and gear storage and cleaning room were designed to prioritize utility and safety for the firefighters. (Layton City Station 54 photos by Endeavour Architectural Photography

Functional Amenities for Functional Space

Even as the owner prioritized value over vanity, there is plenty of beauty to this building as it looks down from its hillside perch onto US-89. Masonry products make up 85% of exterior wall finishes, with darker beige and charcoal coloring of the four-inch honed block offering a nod to the nearby mountains the history of fire station design. 


Long roof overhangs give the building a sense of depth and grandeur on approach. Visible timber at the main entry and rear patio combine structural needs with a lovely visual approach. Firefighters can look out from the fire station’s west-facing patio into the valley and feel the pride in their public safety role.


Seven bedrooms occupy the residential side of the firehouse, with spacious, single-elevation shower bathrooms providing a charming aesthetic for their multifaceted purpose of keeping the firefighters clean.


New UFA Stations Focus on Occupant Health, Safety

Utah’s largest fire agency—Unified Fire Authority—is in the midst of a bonded $36.5 million, four-station building program that includes the recently completed $6.9 million, 16,635-SF Midvale No. 125 (December 2022) and three stations that will wrap up this year (Magna No. 102 and two stations in Eagle Mountain, Nos. 251 and 253). 


According to Zach Robinson, UFA Assistant Chief and a 25-year veteran of the department, new stations are designed with a focus on overall firefighter wellness, along with maximizing internal space of each facility.


“Firefighter health and safety is rising to the top of priority lists—it’s a national trend—and we wanted to be on the front edge of that,” said Robinson. “It was a huge approach for us on this construction phase,” with stations designed around a hot, warm, and cold zone concept that aims to eliminate outside contaminants from entering work and living quarters by confining them to decontamination corridors adjacent to apparatus bays. 


“The ideal situation is to get [firefighters] a shower within an hour,” he added. Air filtration systems and large ceiling fans also help process particulates in the air, and crew living quarters are pressurized so air flows out of the space. Hand and boot wash areas are also inside apparatus bays and gear is stored on rooms off the bay to further mitigate outside contaminates. 


Station durability and space optimization/flexibility were also key design elements, with a goal of “no wasted space,” said Robinson. “All areas serve a purpose. We utilized durable materials, like polished concrete floors, to reduce maintenance costs. We have thoughtful designs by our architects which allowed us to shrink the footprint of the stations.”


Another important feature is highly durable training rooms—Robinson called them “hardened training spaces”—designed with concrete blocks that allow for real-life training situations without damaging the building.


UFA has nearly 700 employees that serve approximately 450,000 people in 15 municipalities, plus unincorporated Salt Lake County. In addition to fire suppression and rescue services, UFA provides advanced life support, first response and ambulance services, hazardous material response, bomb response, code enforcement, and emergency management for all of Salt Lake County. 


Midvale No. 125 was the latest project for Salt Lake-based Paulsen Construction and proved arduous on the procurement side of the project.


“The biggest challenge we faced—which a lot of contractors are still facing—was the lead times for certain materials,” said Harold Saunders, Director of Business Development at Paulsen. “Electrical gear and lighting, along with glass, were a few of the items delivered to the project near the end. If you throw in weather delays, it can all wreak havoc on a project schedule.”

Strenuous, but satisfying for a firm that has built several fire stations in recent years and takes great pride in the importance of these facilities. 


Saunders said, “When you look at how many stations we have built in the last six years, it has been very rewarding to be involved in these key projects.”


Stoker Reflects on Father’s Architectural Legacy

Robert Stoker, Fire Chief of St. George City since 1998 and a veteran of 30+ years experience, oversees a department that has grown significantly during his career. What once relied almost exclusively on volunteer help from the community is now a department of eight stations with full-time crews and several more in the works.


“It’s amazing the growth and service demand that’s developed the past 15-20 years,” said Stoker. “We’re still a combo department with full-time, part-time, and reserve firefighters,” adding that he was the first full-time firefighter hired by St. George City in 1992 (he had been a volunteer since the mid-80s). 


Stoker also takes pride in the fact that his father, Leslie Stoker (who passed away May 2019 at the age of 79), designed several St. George fire stations, along with other key public buildings and the Tuacahn Amphitheater and Arts Center, over a notable 52-year career as an architect. 


Leslie’s last fire station project was No. 9 in the city’s Little Valley area, a building that finished design in 2019. After being on hold for a couple of years, St. George-based Watts Construction completed the build in May 2022. 


Stoker also said his father designed St. George No. 3 in Bloomington Hills, No. 4 in Bloomington, No. 5 in Green Valley, No. 7 at Dixie Downs, and No. 8 at Sun River. 


“It’s pretty neat to have that tie with him,” said Stoker. “He (designed) a lot of stations throughout Nevada and Utah, along with government buildings and schools. It’s neat to drive around these different cities and see his work.”


Two new stations are currently in the design phase, including No. 10 near the Desert Canyons development off Southern Parkway near the airport and a replacement for No. 1 at the corner of 400 East 100 South in the heart of the city. Over the coming years, Stoker said another three stations will likely be needed to service the Tonaquint area, the Ledges off Hwy 18, and the Desert Color development. 

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St. George Fire Station No. 9 was the last of several stations designed by Leslie Stoker (pictured) in the region before he passed away in 2019. His son, Robert, has been Fire Chief of St. George since 1998. (courtesy Robert Stoker; project photo courtesy Watts Construction)

Layton Fire Station 54

Owner: Layton City

Architect: Think Architecture

Civil: Excel Engineering

Electrical: Spectrum Engineers

Mechanical: Spectrum Engineers

Structural: Calder Richards Structural Consulting Engineers

Geotech: CMT Engineering

Landscape: Think Architecture

General Contractor: Hogan & Associates Construction

Concrete: Hogan & Associates Construction

Plumbing: Norm’s Plumbing

HVAC: United Team Mechanical

Electrical: JP Electric

Masonry: Rocky Mountain Masonry

Drywall/Acoustics: MG Drywall / Golder Acoustics

Painting: Hegemann Paint Co.

Tile/Stone: Westech Tile

Carpentry: Trim Art

Flooring: Diversified Flooring, Inc. 

Roofing: Rodac

Glass/Curtain Wall: Bountiful Glass

Waterproofing: Western States Waterproofing

Excavation: Hogan & Associates Construction

Landscaping: Lawson Landscaping




Midvale Fire Station No. 125 

Owner: Unified Fire Authority

Owners Rep: Construction Control

Architect: ajc architects

Civil Engineer: Talisman Civil Consultants

Electrical: BNA Consulting

Mechanical: WHW Engineering

Structural: KPFF

Geotech: GSH Geotechnical

Landscape: ArcSitio Design

General Contractor: Paulsen Construction

Concrete: A-Core Concrete/Milestone Concrete

Plumbing: Robert W. Speirs Plumbing

HVAC: Stellar Mechanical

Electrical: Boshard Electric

Masonry: JH Masonry

Drywall: Mt. Olympus Construction

Painting: Allied Painting

Tile: John Caffall Tile 

Millwork: MC Mill & Design

Flooring: Flooring Services

Roofing: Heritage Roofing

Glass: Mountain Valley Glass

Steel Fabrication: Dixie Fabrication

Steel Erection: Crockett Construction

Precast: Mesa Precast




St. George Fire Station No. 9 

Owner: St. George City

Architect: Mesa Consulting Group & Desert Edge Architecture 

Civil: Bowen Collins & Associates

Electrical: BNA Electrical Engineering

Mechanical: WHW Engineering

Structural: Provalue Engineering

General Contractor: Watts Construction

Concrete: Mountain States Contractors

Plumbing: Tom’s Mechanical

HVAC: Air Doctor Solutions

Electrical: HedgeHog Electric

Masonry: BA Robinson Construction

Drywall/Acoustics: B&S Drywall

Painting: Pacific Painting & Wallcovering

Tile/Stone: HB Flooring Solutions

Carpentry: Excel One Construction

Flooring: HB Flooring Solutions

Roofing: Flynn BEC LP

Glass/Curtain Wall: Faus Glass

Waterproofing: N/A

Steel Fabrication & Erection: Fab-Tec

Black Desert Oasis

By Brad Fullmer • October 15, 2025
When Lehi-based Reef Capital Partners (Reef) initially announced plans in 2018 to build a sprawling, estimated $2 billion mega-resort with a championship-caliber golf course on 600 acres covering parts of Ivins and Santa Clara—small towns with just over 15,000 combined residents at the time—it was difficult to fathom what a project of that magnitude might look like. Fast forward seven years, and Black Desert Resort is indeed a shining oasis amidst Southern Utah's famed red rock cliffs, sitting atop an ancient lava field, with buildings strategically carved into the land to produce a resort unlike anything else. "This is the biggest project we've ever done—we feel really good where we are," said Brett Boren, President of Real Estate for Reef, acknowledging the general completion of the $290 million, 806,000-SF resort center, along with significant ongoing work—including a 1,298-stall parking garage, condominiums, and a private water park. As of September, all aspects of the main resort center were open and fully complete, with the hotel celebrating its first official year in business after partially opening in September 2024 as it hosted the inaugural PGA Black Desert Championship October 10-13. The second installment of the tournament—now dubbed the Bank of Utah Championship—is slated for October 23-26, with a third tournament signed for 2026.

Calder Richards Celebrates 20 Years of Sustainable Evolution

By UC&D • October 1, 2025
In 2005, Calder Richards Consulting Engineers formed after the merger of two smaller structural consulting firms who, interestingly enough, both started in 1986. Calder Richards has provided a steady structural support for Utah’s built environment ever since. As the firm celebrates its 20th anniversary, UC+D spoke with Managing Principals Shaun Packer and Nolan Balls to look back over the company’s history and celebrate what has helped their firm stand out to deliver solid projects in Utah and beyond. Their responses were edited for clarity and brevity. UC+D: What have been some catalytic moments for Calder Richards since that initial merger? SP: Winning the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona is the first one. The big reason for the merger between Richards Consulting Group and Calder Consulting was to build a large enough company to go after bigger projects like that.” NB: That was my first project when I was hired straight out of college. We helped design the 17-story hotel and casino, a conference center, as well as parking structures, a central mechanical building, and a pool building. Talking Stick helped get us through the downturn a few years later. UC+D: What have been your key market sectors you all have targeted over the last 20 years? NB: We were breaking into K-12 along the Wasatch Front soon after the Talking Stick Resort and it’s been our bread and butter since then. SP: Absolutely, but I credit our firm for always adapting to the current environment. We’ve been fortunate to do so much K-12, but we used to do a lot of office work, and now we are working on conversions like the Ebay Headquarters to CTE/Innovation Center for Canyons School District as the market has shifted away from commercial office. UC+D: Schools have certainly evolved over the last 20 years, how has your work as structural engineers evolved? SP: We are seeing more creative design on the architectural side, certainly. We see many more two-story designs; more windows and daylighting. But we’re utilizing more powerful tools and continually building our understanding of the structural materials that are in use more than ever—tilt-up concrete, steel columns and beams, especially—to be the architect’s trusted partner. NB: Schools have definitely changed, and we’ve had better experience in helping projects move forward successfully when we are involved earlier in the design process. As we got involved early on in West High School’s schematic design, we were able to provide structural solutions and options to accommodate the architects’ design intent. UC+D: How has company growth changed Calder Richards? SP: It’s certainly changed the number of people in our office. We started with around 10 people when we merged, and today we have 27. But we often say that we don’t want to grow just to grow—we want to grow sustainably. We don’t lay people off when works slows down, and we have an expectation that sometimes there will be overtime work, and other times you may be waiting for our next project to begin.

The (Epi)Center of it All

By By Taylor Larsen • October 1, 2025
Nested in the middle of the University of Utah (U of U) campus sits the aptly-named Impact & Prosperity Epicenter, the second living learning community (LLC) project designed on campus by Los Angeles-based Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign. After nearly a decade since their first LLC project, the award-winning Lassonde Studios (UC+D’s 2016 Most Outstanding Public Building over $10 million), Mehrdad Yazdani, the design firm’s Principal and Studio Director, said their work on a sequel was an exciting prospect for the firm, and enlisted Salt Lake-based MHTN Architects and Okland Construction to serve as the respective local architect and general contractor. Today, the Epicenter serves as a striking piece of architecture and construction, one whose curvilinear shape asks users and visitors plenty of questions. But moving from idea to execution has been a work in progress. One query from Yazdani stood out as it relates to students and the built environment, and helped begin the journey to create the Epicenter: “How does your living environment as a student impact your success as a student and as a changemaker?” A Project for an Evolving Campus Katie Macc, CEO of the Sorenson Impact Institute, said LLCs like the Epicenter and Lassonde Studios next door have been massive steps forward in advancing entrepreneurship and social impact. But both play a major role in creating “college town magic”—a phrase coined by University President Taylor Randall that invokes a vibrant campus where students can find community and have one-of-a-kind experiences. With more on-campus student housing in the works, the state’s flagship university is hoping to shed the “commuter school” label and deliver a level of desirability that matches the resources students commit to higher education. “There is some soul searching going on across university campuses,” said Macc of the challenge at hand. “We have to be convincing that going to college matters.” She said overall university enrollments across the nation are decreasing as students grapple with tuition costs, COVID and its isolating aftershocks, and a different perspective on higher education. Universities are no longer a place where students come to learn what they couldn’t learn elsewhere—remote learning and the internet have opened a fissure in that idea that will never close. Instead of that educational transaction, being at a university must include building community and creating in-person experiences only available on campus. Macc said that the Epicenter helps steer the campus experience toward the future, with design goals to create a base of operations for two changemaking organizations and a living and learning home for 778 students. The three-story commercial portion of the building, known as the “Changemaker Pavilion”, includes office space for The Center for Business, Health, and Prosperity (second floor) and the Sorenson Impact Institute (third floor). While each organization has a different focus, both are firmly invested in helping students access and create the resources needed to change the world. Each entity works hand-in-hand as owners of the Epicenter to host events and “create a full spectrum of ways for students to get involved,” said Chad Salvadore, Chief Financial Officer for the Sorenson Impact Institute. “We’re dialing in the programming to energize the student body,” said Salvadore of the work done at the Epicenter. With over 60 majors represented among the 778 students who live there, he said that the diversity of students is less a reflection of their chosen major and more a desire to reside in a space built for students to work their entrepreneurial muscles. “Living here is a mindset—you can engage across many different paths you choose.”

Goal!

By Brad Fullmer • October 1, 2025
Front view of the bleachers, press box, and suites. (photos courtesy SIRQ Construction)

Four Decades of Transformation

By Brad Fullmer • October 1, 2025
Over the course of its 40-year history in Utah, WSP's Salt Lake office—originally founded as Parsons Brinckerhoff in 1985—has morphed from primarily a transportation design firm to one that successfully operates in multiple civil engineering markets. The results of WSP's transformation the past decade into a more diverse outfit speak for themselves, with the 128-person Salt Lake office (with locations in Cottonwood Heights and South Jordan) posting three consecutive years of revenues over $50 million, including a record $70.1 million in 2023, and a robust $59.9 million in 2024—good for the No. 2 ranking in UC+D's 2025 Top Utah Engineering Firms rankings.

Good Career? Start Here

By Taylor Larsen • October 1, 2025
Lucio Gallegos vividly remembers the workforce development meetings he attended during his time at Ogden-Weber Tech. These career and technical education (CTE) discussions consistently focused on one thing: young people were not entering construction, and the industry needed a new approach to attract them. Gallegos recalled one member of the workforce development team, a training director with a prominent general contractor, saying, “We have been trying this for over 10 years, screw it, we’re just gonna hire them.” The Long Road Those conversations occurred nearly 10 years ago, and workforce development concerns continue to permeate the industry. The National Center for Construction Education & Research estimates that 41% of the construction workforce will retire by 2031, leading to potential gaps in skill and safety and decreases in productivity and project quality. While stakeholders have aligned on the overall goal of providing students a foundation for future success through career development, the means to achieve the ends were seemingly at odds. High schools, trade schools, colleges, and private industry took different paths to achieve their goals, with some moving in opposite directions. “I’m gonna be honest with you,” Gallegos recalled one school administrator saying, “If I promote what you’re telling me to get them over to the tech college, I lose head count. And then I lose teachers. I can’t have a school without teachers.” Jobs that took away student learning experiences, according to federal guidelines and child labor laws, made the idea a non-starter. However, after years of lobbying the Utah Legislature for a compromise between industry and education, H.B. 055, passed in 2023, provided a catalytic change in how younger people can engage with construction and other industries. High school students could participate if they were involved in a school-sponsored work experience and career exploration program. Private industry finally had the compromise it wanted. It was time to act. Big-D Charts New Path Gallegos, now the Workforce Development Manager from Big-D, joined the company in 2023 with the express purpose of creating a program that fit within the new guidelines. Gallegos said he sees career development through the lens of the immigrant experience, one he knows personally as a Mexican immigrant with a father who worked in commercial construction. “I was 9 years old and busting pins out of concrete forms with a hammer that was as big as I was,” he laughed. “I’ve got the cliché immigrant story.” That story has a theme familiar to many immigrant families, he said, one where parents say, “I want my kids not to have to work as hard as I do. I want them in school.” Add to that, it’s a law—children must attend school. Gallegos was unfazed by those obstacles. As he began planning how Big-D’s internship program would operate, he knew that engagement had to start at the elementary school level and build on personal relationships between private industry, school administrators, students, and their families to succeed. “We want to be the solution, not the obstacle to get into this industry,” said Gallegos. So Big-D removed the barriers. Students can still attend school, work towards graduation, and be available in the afternoon for sports, extracurricular activities, and the high school experience. But working was another significant part of the immigrant experience, Gallegos said, and internships needed to be paid to alleviate the family concerns. “We asked what we would pay somebody fresh out of high school who worked at Big-D,” Gallegos said. Interns have earned those same wages ever since.

It's A Knockout

By Brad Fullmer • October 1, 2025
On January 2, 1957, Gene Fullmer, a scrappy, underdog fighter from West Jordan stunned the boxing world with a 15-round unanimous decision over the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson at New York’s fabled Madison Square Garden. Fullmer captured the world middleweight championship and established himself as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers during the late 50s and early 60s. Since then, the Fullmer name has been synonymous with boxing in Utah, with brothers Gene, Jay, and Don establishing the Fullmer Brothers Boxing Gym in 1978, and offering free boxing instruction and life mentoring to thousands of youths—carrying on a tradition they learned from their trainer, Marv Jenson. Their legacy of community giving will live on in the new Fullmer Legacy Center in South Jordan, a 16,500-SF facility that will serve as a permanent home to the boxing gym—after years of bouncing around to various temporary facilities—along with a museum, snack bar, and gift shop. “The Fullmers are the first family of boxing in the state of Utah—that’s well understood,” said Dave Butterfield, a founding board member of the Fullmer Legacy Foundation. Butterfield served as Chairman of the Board from June 2016 to early 2025 and was influential in helping raise money—nearly $6 million via donations to date, which includes $2 million from the Utah Legislature. Project Driven by Vision to Find a Permanent Home for Fullmer Brothers Gym It was Jay Fullmer who led the charge to teach boxing in the community. By 1978, the Fullmer Brothers Boxing Gym had formally opened at the Butterfield farm chicken coop in South Jordan, recalled Larry Fullmer, Don’s oldest son and the man who spearheaded the efforts for the Fullmer Legacy Center. From there, Larry said the facility moved to Riverton Elementary, an old church house in West Jordan, a sugar factory, a former fire station, and the Salt Lake County Equestrian Park in South Jordan, where it had resided since 2011. When they got word that Salt Lake County planned to transfer ownership of the park to Utah State University, Fullmer knew they needed to find a long-term home for the boxing gym. Fullmer met with Butterfield and Robert Behunin—who at the time was a Vice President with Utah State University—in 2016 and told them he just wanted a “tin shed of our own” for boxing. Behunin countered by saying, “If you want people to donate money, you need something better than a tin shed!” They quickly formed the Fullmer Legacy Foundation (FLF), and by 2018, the wheels were in motion on a building. Doc Murdock, a long-time trainer at the gym, connected Larry with his former roommate at Brigham Young University, Vern Latham, who is a Principal at Salt Lake-based VCBO Architecture. VCBO offered pro-bono services initially while helping FLF put together an RFP, while North Salt-based Gramoll Construction provided value engineering and other services in an effort to get the project launched. Larry expressed sheer gratitude for the contributions of both firms in helping make the project a reality, especially for many generous donations from various foundations and individuals. “[VCBO] believed in us early on and did our first phase of planning at no charge—they have been amazing and so professional to work with,” said Larry. “Gramoll helped us get the budget done as tight as it could be. This project had the absolute tightest budget. We met weekly with architects and the general contractor to see the progress—I’ve never seen such an amazing process. Construction started in November ’23, and every time I would come to the jobsite in the first six months, I’d get emotional.” “We leaned on our relationships with contractors for flooring, ceiling, tiles, donated furniture and got deep discounts and a lot of in-kind donations,” said Phil Haderlie, Principal-in-Charge for VCBO. “To me, the story of this project is the grassroots effort of people seeing the value—this is something that came from their heart. It will have a long-lasting impact on the community.”

Significant Buzz

By Brad Fullmer • October 1, 2025
The first season is in the books for the Salt Lake Bees in its spectacular new home—the Ballpark at America First Square, the exciting new heart of Downtown Daybreak and certainly one of the premier Triple-A stadiums in the country. "It's a really cool stadium—the field looks so good!" gushed Eric Barton, Project Director for Salt Lake-based Okland Construction, while surveying the spacious 280,000 SF, 6,500-seat (8,000 capacity) ballpark. Barton said his team faced an extremely difficult construction schedule with the mandate the project had to be sufficiently ready for Opening Day 2025 on April 8, less than 18 months after the formal October 20, 2023, groundbreaking. Barton said Okland knew it was going to be a grind, with long hours and tight windows to get various milestones accomplished. "When we bid this to our trade partners, we had them bid it with the expectation of it being six days a week," he said. "We want not only your best guys, but you have to be adaptable to the plan. It was gangbusters from the start.” Up to 300 workers were onsite during peak construction activity, requiring meticulous coordination throughout. Okland even brought in Fred Strasser, a legendary project director who came out of retirement to shepherd the project through. "Fred is the genius behind getting this whole thing done," said Barton. The project was designed by Salt Lake-based HOK, who worked closely with the owner, Sandy-based Larry H. Miller Real Estate (LHMRE) and Miller Sports + Entertainment (MSE) to bring about a project that would add even more buzz to its wildly popular, 4,000-acre master planned Daybreak development in South Jordan, making it a true entertainment destination. The design weaves together best-in-class baseball experiences with year-round public amenities, including a recently opened Megaplex theater, a performing arts center, a large amphitheater, along with retail, restaurants, and apartments, with buildout continuing through 2027. Walking paths and open spaces create natural connections between The Ballpark and the surrounding neighborhood, making the area an iconic community asset and a true sports and entertainment district. Downtown Daybreak is slated to host more than 200 annual events—including the Bees’ 75-game regular season. Supporting this entertainment destination, the venue’s prominent location just off the Mountain View Corridor freeway makes it highly visible to passing traffic while providing easy access. The stadium is also connected to multiple transportation options, easily reached by walking, biking or light rail across the Wasatch Front, and by car from the new freeway corridor. The Ballpark site drops 20 feet from the loading dock to the plaza, managed through terraced spaces that echo the region’s mining heritage. Though the slope stays gentle at under 5%, carefully placed stairs and planters make walking comfortable while honoring the industrial past. The center field main entrance connects to light rail, while a formal plaza at home plate serves as a second entrance, primarily for VIP access. The street design follows Daybreak’s established standards for lighting and tree spacing. Bike racks at the light rail station and plaza make cycling to games convenient. Utah’s Landscape Shapes Design The Wasatch Mountains, visible from every angle of the ballpark, directly influenced the ballpark's design. Throughout the venue, carefully planned viewpoints frame these mountain vistas. The structure resembles this mountainous setting in its form, transitioning from solid brick and concrete at its base to lighter materials—metal and expansive glass—as it ascends. Working with Kansas City-based architectural metal fabricator Zahner, HOK and MSE created a distinctive facade using perforated metal panels that suggest Utah mountain peak silhouettes from Ben Lomond Peak in Weber County to Mt. Nebo, the southernmost and highest mountain in the Wasatch Range of Utah. These panels transform into a glowing display at night, serving as a lantern on The Ballpark’s ‘front porch’ and welcoming visitors. This connection to Utah’s landscape flows throughout the site. Angular planters guide visitors along pathways, while public spaces are arranged in terraces that echo the mountainside. The copper colors and stepped surfaces of the nearby Kennecott Mine inspired the ballpark’s materials and layout. Inside, the decor features warm copper, gold and honey tones, with textured materials that blend the natural landscape with the Salt Lake Bees’ team colors.

Firms Making Moves

By Brad Fullmer • October 1, 2025
Horrocks CEO Bryan Foote (left) shakes hands with Matt Hirst, former President/CEO of CRS Engineering & Survey. Horrocks acquired CRS a year ago in a move that has proven to be a seamless fit for more than 60 CRS employees.

Q&A with Nathan Goodrich

By UC&D • August 1, 2025
Nathan Goodrich