Shovel Ready!

These can’t-miss projects showcase the latest and greatest design principles being built into the state’s newest schools, offices, apartments, and more.

North Capitol Building
Owners: DFCM, Capitol Preservation Board
Architect: VCBO Architecture
GC: Okland Construction
Estimated Completion Date: 2025

The North Capitol Building will complete the Utah State Capitol master plan’s vision as it replaces the 50-year-old State Office Building directly north of the Capitol. Comprising four stories over a basement, this 158,000-SF building is the home of numerous government offices, conference and meeting spaces, and the newly created Museum of Utah. The museum occupies the ground level, helping greet visitors entering the capitol grounds. The basement of the building houses a much-needed archive space that will protect some of Utah’s most valued artifacts.

The classically designed granite exterior closely matches the details of the original Capitol building designed by Richard Kletting. The base-isolated concrete structure will ensure the archive’s safety in Utah’s high seismic region while also accommodating for the heavy stone facade. The building’s four-story atrium will serve as a gateway for Capitol Hill guests and hold a grand staircase leading to the second-floor conference areas. Further north of the building sits a much-needed underground parking garage for use by both public and staff. Covering that plaza will be a landscaped plaza to help align the capitol grounds with the original intent of the historic Olmsted site design.

The State and design team are taking great care to ensure this building matches the dignity of the Utah Capitol and will last as an enduring addition to this historic and symbolic place.

Frederick Quinney Lawson Health Sciences Building

Owners: DFCM

Architect: Method Studio

GC: Layton Construction

Estimated Completion Date: August 2023


The proposed architecture and site design for the new building magnify Bridgerland Technical College’s mission to deliver competency-based, employer-guided career and hands-on technical education to support the Bear River Region. The building aligns with the college’s strategic plan to update and modernize facilities, programs, and equipment; build relationships; and promote and improve student success on their Logan campus. The new 75,000-SF space provides a timeless, modern cornerstone building with high-tech, purpose-built classrooms, labs, and support spaces for students and faculty. The building continues to elevate the important role of technical colleges in the community while also speaking to its specific healthcare purpose. The design is warm, inspiring, comfortable, sustainable and enhances wellness and learning as future students learn the importance of their role in healing. Careful use of texture, color, natural and artificial light, healthcare branding, organic materials, and connections to nature have been carefully considered and integrated. 



Cyprus High School

Owner: Granite School District
Architect: ELEVATE (Joint venture between Naylor Wentworth Lund, architect of record, and Fanning Howey, partner architect)
GC: Westland Construction
Estimated Completion Date: August 2025



Cyprus High School is a 504,000-SF, three-story school under construction on a new, 57-acre site in Magna. The process began with workshops including administrators and community members in which core values and goals for the projects were shared and explored for the nearly 3,000 students that attend the high school. From these workshops, the team formed guiding principles and imperatives that inform the architecture of future Granite School District high schools—including Cyprus High.


As the school looks to incorporate more applied technology spaces, ELEVATE included  rooms like mass-production-oriented wood shop, culinary arts-style foods lab, and metal shop focused on welding. 


Other touches like floor to ceiling bathroom stalls aim to accommodate the privacy of students while classroom wings have large, open exterior collaboration space with visuals into the more traditional classroom spaces for team-focused school work.


Cyprus High School’s design features plenty of glass and plenty of daylight for the tilt-up concrete school with form liner for visual and physical texture. Copper exterior finishes reflecting the importance of copper mining in Magna. 


4800 Lofts

Developer: IMH Companies, Next Level Homes
Architect: Beecher Walker
General Contractor: Pentalon Construction
Estimated Completion Date: Fall 2024


Located in Murray, 4800 Lofts is a new multi-family apartment and retail complex consisting of 371 apartment units and 18,000 SF of ground-level retail. The unit type in three of the buildings encompasses studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, with a fourth building being home to a club house, additional studio apartments, and retail. The property boasts extensive and expansive rooftop and mid-level amenity decks with pools, hot tubs, firepits, and gathering areas, creating a resort-like atmosphere for residents. A unique feature of the property will be the community’s ability to access some of the amenity spaces. “We wanted 4800 Lofts to be an integral part of the surrounding community so it felt only natural to invite the neighborhood to have use of some of the amenity decks, in addition to the retail,” said John D. Thomas, President of the Utah Division, IMH Companies.


Kem and Carolyn Gardner Crisis Care Center

Owners: Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah Health, DFCM

Architects: FFKR Architects, architecture+
GC: Okland Construction
Estimated Completion Date: May 2024



The center will be a 80,000-SF facility in South Salt Lake on a property dedicated to creating a Mental Health Campus for individuals in crisis or having acute mental health issues. The building includes a 30-chair receiving center with non-refusal police drop-off as an alternative to the emergency rooms or jail, a 24-bed acute stabilization inpatient unit, outpatient services, neuro-modulation services, pharmacy and lab services, and an integrated emphasis on research, education, and training. The project will provide world-class, comprehensive, human-centered psychiatric care through services that are accessible for individuals to stabilize and de-escalate during a mental health crisis, as well as a bridge to the community and mental health system for recovery.

The project provides the highest safety standards for psychiatric patients. The spaces throughout the project promote patient comfort, dignity, and hope. The interiors are thoughtfully designed to create a healing environment that reduces the stigma around seeking care for mental health and demonstrates an investment in treating individuals with psychiatric needs.

Emery High School

Owner:  Emery County School District
Architect:  KMA Architects
GC: Westland Construction
Estimated Completion Date: August 2024


The new Emery High School in Castle Dale will include approximately 143,000 SF of new construction and incorporate approximately 130,000 SF of existing construction from the school’s Spartan Center and auditorium. The project is a two-story masonry building with steel joists and deck complete with main commons area with an upper balcony, administration and counseling offices, classrooms and labs, and district training room on the upper floor. Beyond the formal education features, the school will be chock full of amenities for Emery County students, like a media center with adjoining education networking rooms, computer labs, a home economics area with food and sewing rooms, and more. The school also aims to help students prepare for future careers via a shop wing with metal, wood, and automotive shops. Outdoor school amenities on the furnished site will also include soccer fields, while the new football stadium, baseball fields, and fieldhouse were just completed during phase one of the project.


Oro Apartments

Owner: Thackeray Company

Architect: Architecture Belgique Inc.

GC: Big-D Construction

Estimated Completion Date: 2025



Oro is the Spanish word for gold, and Oro will set the gold standard for luxury apartment living in Sugarhouse. Sprawling the length of an entire block, this 4-on-3 structured podium boasts 316 units in studio, one-, and two-bedroom configurations. 20,000 SF of courtyard amenity space is a main attraction that includes a pool, spa, terraced landscaping, multiple outdoor kitchens, and an entire rooftop dog park. The courtyard connects to a two-story clubroom and fitness center. Oro's amenities don't stop there, the site provides a mixed-use space including a new state liquor store and two additional retail pads. While the development completely replaces the old Dryer's Ice Cream site, Oro nods in appreciation of the site's past and will prominently display restored versions of the Dryer's Ice Cream Cone and Snelgrove Signs.


Shoreline Middle School

Owner: Provo City School District

Architect: Curtis Miner Architecture

GC: Westland Construction

Estimated Completion Date: Summer 2024



The New Shoreline Middle School is a redesign for the Provo City School District that will replace the existing Dixon Middle School. The new school will house grades 6–8 and have a capacity of 1,200 students.


The 179,000-SF school is intended to provide a safe, secure, and inviting learning environment designed around a central commons and administration suite that is accessed through a secure entry vestibule. The layout has flexible multi-use spaces as well as traditional classroom environments, thus providing a variety of learning experiences that embrace modern learning strategies. Natural daylighting is brought into every classroom and teaching space, providing a positive and happy environment that stimulates creativity and learning.


Traverse Heights Office Building

Owner: Woodley Real Estate

Architect: Babcock Design

GC: Okland Construction

Estimated Completion Date: Early 2023



From conception, the motivation behind the Traverse Heights Office Building has been to create an ultra-unique, top-of-market workplace product that appeals to high net worth companies. Sited on a prominent bluff overlooking the I-15 corridor with views over the Wasatch Range, Traverse Heights has a dynamic form that reaches out over Utah Valley. Structurally, the building is entirely concrete—post-tension suspended slabs, columns, and shear walls. This not only avoided prohibitive lead times in the steel joist and deck market, but created an unparalleled interior space with flat slab ceilings and a clear height of 12 feet for the office. East-Asian techniques of asymmetry and balance inspired the building’s uninterrupted flow from exterior to interior. Taking advantage of sophisticated heating and cooling systems allowed the design team to create a façade made completely of vision glass spanning from floor to floor, with no opaque panels. Intensely involved at every turn, the ownership group drove the design team to execute their vision of beauty defined by a minimalist simplicity and an exceptional material palette.


West Haven Junior High School

Owner: Weber School District

Architect: Design West Architects

GC: Hogan & Associates Construction, Inc.

Estimated Completion Date: Ready for the 2024/2025 school year


To combat rising construction costs, the new West Haven Junior High School in Weber County features a straightforward, functional floor plan for the 172,000-SF facility. The reasonable and cost-effective design meets Weber School District’s needs via insulated concrete forms, providing a cost-effective strategy for top-notch building performance, longevity, energy efficiency, seismic stability, and acoustics. Its design strategically incorporates color, light, and materials throughout the school in creative ways, featuring vibrant paint and tiles, large way-finding graphics, glass garage doors, and flexible shared spaces to support and encourage a student-centered learning approach.


Core classrooms feature open, flexible configurations thanks to operable pocket doors that lead out to a large common area where students can collaborate in project-based study. The school also offers classrooms dedicated to science, sewing, cooking, ceramics, band/orchestra, drama, computer technology and education, metal shop, wood shop, and art. An acoustically tuned cafetorium with collapsible risers for auditorium performances doubles as a lunchroom for added value. The performance platform connects on stage to the performing arts classrooms for music and drama convenience.


Millcreek City Hall

Owner: Millcreek City

Architect: MHTN Architects

GMGC: Okland Construction

Estimated Completion: August 2023


Millcreek City’s theme “Connected by Nature” was embraced by the design team as a main guiding principle for the overall design. The new six-story building will house the city hall, police department, and dedicated areas for community members. The community areas consist of a market ground level for food and retail spaces and a community rooftop space with breathtaking views of surrounding mountains. Nature is represented throughout the building with the use of warm and earthy materials. The façade is articulated to give tribute to Mount Olympus and includes a rock-climbing wall for the community to use

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