Marmalade Plaza Bearing Fruit
Half-acre public plaza in Salt Lake’s Marmalade District connects neighborhood to urban oasis via high design and innovative construction. By Taylor Larsen
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.
Innovation continued as the construction team worked with graphic designers at Queen of Wraps to lay out custom stencils for different sections of the concrete paving. Sandblasted apricot and leaf motifs brilliantly connect with Christensen’s statue to the west.
As day turns to night on the plaza, the subtle uplighting of “Apricot,” trees, and foliage combines with the halo under-lighting of the water feature steps and bridges. Bollards on the project’s western edge help light up a pathway from north to south. The catenary cable lighting system adds to the nighttime allure too, giving Marmalade Plaza the foundation to be a programming delight to potentially host art festivals, concerts, movie nights, pop-up markets, along with neighborhood residents and visitors enjoying the ample café seating.
Wadsworth complemented the LOCI team for planting the seed for such transformative work, imagining something that would bear fruit similar to the trees that gave the area its name.
“Great construction is more than just function,” he said, “it’s about design that resonates.”
Today, residents and visitors can saunter down their respective stairways or walkways to a project befitting the historic area—with all paths leading to the sweet delight of Marmalade Plaza.
Marmalade Plaza
Owner: Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City
Location: Salt Lake City
Size: 0.56 Acres
Landscape Architect: LOCI
General Contractor: Cal Wadsworth Construction
Electric: Winward Electrical Services
Landscaping: Stratton and Bratt
Excavation: Sunset Mountain Machinery
Precast: Mountain West Precast
Concrete Supplier: American Eagle Ready Mix Utah
The new St. George City Hall is a shining example of a collaborative process between owner, architect, and general contractor, producing a world-class facility that will serve the community for the next 40-plus years. By Bradley Fullmer
After more than a half century designing buildings, 73-year-old Jim Child remains a fixture in Utah’s architectural community, with a genuine passion for his craft that inspires those around him. By Bradley Fullmer
Three Salt Lake City projects showcase the immense talent of the local A/E/C industry to achieve supreme levels of sustainability through adaptive reuse, turning drab offices into vibrant housing. By Taylor Larsen
Design and construction teams working at “ludicrous” speeds delivered more than the Utah Mammoth’s new practice facilities, but also a fitting tribute to Utah’s strong hockey culture.
The passage of HB 355 in 2025 provided stability for Utah's construction aggregate producers. The question moving forward is: How long will the finite supply of materials last at existing operations along the Wasatch Front?
The new Deseret Peak High School delivers out-of-this-world design for a welcome addition to the growing Tooele Valley.
The eight-year odyssey to deliver Cyprus High was worth the voyage, as designers and builders created a stellar learning environment for Magna’s growing community.
Engineers note the emerging trends among Utah’s different transit modes and how evolving technology and partnerships set the state up for success. By Taylor Larsen
UC+D profiles four new firms who aim to make a name for themselves in an A/E/C market that refuses to slow down. By Bradley Fullmer
Led by the City of St. George, Washington County has experienced explosive growth of more than 50% over the past 15 years, ranking in the top 5% of all U.S. counties and fueling strong demand for commercial construction projects. By Bradley Fullmer
