Waterworks in the Wilderness

Major upgrades to the City Creek Water Treatment Plant will be delivered in 2027—the result of major collaborative efforts incorporating state-of-the-art engineering and construction solutions in the Salt Lake Foothills.
By Taylor Larsen

July 23rd, 1847 was a pivotal day for the pioneers. Records from the time detailed how the advance party trekking into the Salt Lake Valley built a dam to convey water from City Creek to freshly plowed land.

Years later, the city hired civil and hydraulic engineer Herman Schussler to design a system to bring water through laminated wood pipes to 20,000 Salt Lake City residents while preparing for future growth. 

Schussler said, in a presentation to Brigham Young in 1872, “I propose to construct the pipe system of the City of such dimensions as to be capable of supplying five million gallons per diem.”

While those original pipes couldn’t make it to year two, the design was in place for cast iron pipes to go in their place in 1876. The 37 carloads of cast iron pipe, plumbing tools, water gates, and more came from multiple suppliers from eastern US industrial hubs of St. Louis, Boston, and Louisville, KY.

Those collaborative efforts brought modern waterworks “in our lovely Deseret,” collecting water from 19.2 square miles of watershed that feeds the 14.5-mile-long City Creek stream.

Modernity

Fast forward nearly 150 years, past chlorination that arrived in the 1920s, past the first water treatment facility constructed in Utah, the City Creek Water Treatment Plant in 1953, past filter installation in 1966, and past the canyon reopening for recreational use in 1975—Salt Lake City needed a new treatment facility to keep clean water flowing.   

The Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities (SLCDPU) partnered with engineering firm Brown and Caldwell in design in 2018 to envision and engineer something new to ensure resiliency and reliable water service to its customers. While the plant escaped any critical damage in the March 2020 earthquake, it was a reminder of the urgent need to create a new facility.

Design and construction would work around a coterie of barriers and challenges—keeping operations ongoing while building on a challenging site three miles into the wilderness—to produce the future of water treatment for Salt Lake City. 

Upgrading from Old to New


Design partnered with Haskell in construction to deliver a treatment facility water users can depend on.


Steve Brenchley, Managing Engineer for Brown and Caldwell, said future solutions needed to juggle current operations with ongoing design and construction to keep taps operable and water flow to residents unimpeded.

“Commissioning the modifications to the existing facility while working to finalize the design for the new treatment plant required an all-hands-on-deck approach,” he said.


One pair of hands came from Brown and Caldwell Design Lead Engineer Adam Jones, who envisioned converting two of the existing four filtration basins to flocculation basins. There, giant paddles rotate to push sediment and other coagulated particles together for easier removal before cleaner water goes toward the next stage of the filtration process.


New construction would need to be integrated, too, evolving as the owner, contractor, and engineer collaborated during value engineering sessions.


Keeping Water Moving


“The [temporary] facility is a bit of a sunk cost,” said Jones. But don’t let the sunk cost fallacy fool you. The team allocated resources to the tune of $5 million to keep a temporary facility operational to save $11 million on the future facility by making it more constructible and shaving months off the construction schedule.


Call it a tribute to the pioneer value of thrift, or call it cost savings, the project team reused materials from the old building and kept temporary facility costs low. John Hamilton, Haskell Sr. Project Manager, said that they reused the flocculators, making them longer to keep the flow moving and particulates out. They also reused piping, basins, and other elements of the existing plant to minimize costs.


The SLCDPU operations team joined in the collaborative effort, striking gold with a brilliant bypass pumping plan that allowed them to run the existing plant as usual while Haskell started up and tested the new system.


“This required extensive collaboration including with the Utah Division of Drinking Water (DDW),” said Brenchley. “The DDW became a key member of our team and worked with us to approve our unique and creative solutions.”


Delivery Method Adds Collaborative Spark


Those on the project team said the delivery method has been critical in moving the three-phase project forward.


“When you work with a team this large you need to be open to new ideas,” said Brenchley.  “Our team needed to be open-minded in the midst of tough questions and embrace the best solution regardless of how or where it came from.”


As Haskell came aboard in 2023, their team recommended significant changes to the facility layout, construction schedule optimization, and real-world pricing integration.


Instead of a facility capable of 16 million gallons per day (MGD), the project team looked to the minimum size needed to reach peak demand—selecting a facility capable of 4MGD of direct filtration. The design would work within the existing facility footprint and incorporate plate settlers to significantly reduce the size of the sedimentation basins needed in the treatment process.


Brown and Caldwell completed a three-month pilot study to prove that their advanced filter media design could provide high-quality drinking water at higher filtration rates. The pilot showed superb performance and got the go-ahead from DDW for the high-rate process and the associated cost savings.


Other facility and area features will include: 

  • Air scour filter wash system to help better clean the filters and provide longer filter run times, with less filter downtime.
  • Post-filtration disinfection contact basin to perform more of its required disinfection on the filtered water instead of raw water. 
  • Dark sky-compliant lighting to reduce the visual impact on the canyon and recreationists.
  • Improved seismic, landslide, and flood resilience to eliminate or reduce damage and disruptions during disasters.
  • Constant head backwash system to improve resiliency by eliminating the need for the existing backwash tank.
  • Stream channel and bank restoration to better manage flash flooding and restore the stream bank.


“This is where collaborative delivery really shined,” said Jeremy McVey, Director for Haskell’s Project Development Water team. “There were so many problems to solve, but with the right people in the room—owner and operators, engineer, and contractor—we overcame all of them.”


Partnering workshops, Hamilton said, had the project team working with the owner and the facilitator to bring up issues and resolve them.


Brenchley said a standing 8 AM daily meeting helped to improve communication between overseeing engineers and the site superintendent. 


“It’s not Festivus where we’re just airing our grievances,” he laughed, "but it helps us to communicate better.”


Jones said that going from RFI’s to response is always a challenge in the best of times. “It can feel like we’re talking past each other and missing things,” he said. “So, we talked about certain RFIs that needed to be a phone call.”


Logistical Challenges 


Teamwork makes the dream work, but it’s still a dream until plans go into practice. 


One challenge comes from the area, namely City Creek Canyon’s active recreation site in the Salt Lake foothills. Haskell planned to build on weekdays and keep recreation open on weekends and holidays. McVey said the public engagement team has worked diligently to keep the public aware of what’s going on up the road, restricting access to the site on weekdays so thousands of concrete and delivery truck journeys could go unimpeded.


Keeping the nature-loving public safe was one part, but what about the 100 craft workers on site? Haskell created a plan to provide workers with lunch each day to minimize travel. To prepare for quick evacuation in the event of an accident or wildfire that could block access to the road, McVey said the Haskell team is in constant collaboration with the Sheriff’s Office and EMS providers to ensure a helicopter is on stand-by whenever workers are on site. Other work with the city has continued to meet permitting requirements, coordinating police and fire department, public engagement, and traffic control planning on Bonneville Blvd.


Going above and beyond to strategize and implement the schedule is a continuous team effort, according to McVey. It starts with constant monitoring and adjusting to the dewatering system in place—no small feat when considering the massive watershed. Staging and transportation planning, snow plowing, and more have been critical, too. All of it has gone to move past the first phase of getting the temporary facility up and running and decommissioning the old facility.


Compliance and Funding


Another key feature of this project is funding through a FEMA-funded Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Grant that aligned with the Buy American Build American Act passed in late 2021. That gave the project $36 million for the second phase to demolish, shore, erect a tower crane, and perform structural excavation.


Haskell has delivered a plan for the city to remain fully compliant with federal funding provisions. Federally mandated wages are a boon to workers, and the logistics of complying with job classification requirements and procuring domestic materials and products to meet the 36-month construction deadline have the Haskell team in their problem-solving element.


McVey noted that construction is still in the early stages but greatly assisted by project phasing. 


“[Phasing] allowed the construction team to move forward while the final design progressed,” he said. Phase 2, McVey continued, is in the final stages and should be wrapped up in February 2025 before the final phase, the BRIC Balance of Plant, finishes the remaining work.


New Facility Emerges


The new facility is designed to be a disaster-hardened operation capable of an immediate return to service in the event of a 2,475-year earthquake, 100-year wind event, or 500-year flood event—one designed to stay operational for the next half century and minimize imposed risks.


Design, construction, and engagement have been a team effort where everyone rowed their metaphorical flocculation paddles in the same direction.


The new project is currently under excavation to be 10 feet deeper than it was previously to be a best-in-class gravity-fed plant that McVey said will use modern equipment and processes to deliver operational savings through improved energy and chemical efficiencies. 


The new flocculation basins, sedimentation basins, and filtering operations will move inside a single building to provide a more operator-friendly facility whose resiliency will keep it operational in the face of significant flooding, windstorms, and earthquakes when construction finishes in 2027.


It’s hard to say what those early pioneers would think of all this work going on three miles up City Creek Canyon. But it’s easy to envision their joy seeing the same collaborative spirit and forward-thinking legacy in design and construction extend nearly 180 years since their work began. 

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