I had no idea this building was up for demolition until reading today that it was demolished three days ago. The Utah Heritage Foundation had good coverage of the demolition. I'm so glad I was able to take some pictures of the building back in July. As I sat at the TRAX station waiting to head back home on that hot July afternoon, I was struck by the amazing potentials of the building, both its prime location and the beauty that restoring it would bring to the SLC Transit hub block. I thought of Portland's Pearl District, where industrial buildings and warehouses have been preserved and now are the center of the most vibrant part of the city.
But, sadly, no such vision exists in Salt Lake City.
Before Photo
After Photo (Utah Heritage Foundation Photo of Demolition)
So many buildings of significance here in SLC are being demolished and replaced with something infinitely worse than was there before. The dumbing-down of Salt Lake. Willful and deliberate destruction. Remember how much effort it took just to save the Deseret Bank Building downtown? The intent, desire and goals of the developer, architect, and client of City Creek was to tear it down and put up a new non-descript building with no character in its place. Thankfully the people rose up in protest to preserve and restore the building.
I'm sure the plans for this prominent, yet run-down corner of the city are to put up yet another new non-descript character-less building. How many more Gateway mall buildings do we really need in our city? How many City Creek buildings can we handle? If this is part of some kind of New Urbanist Redevelopment thinking in Utah, I want nothing to do with it. Not when there is so much historic beauty waiting to be cleaned-up, restored, and preserved.
Taken from the TRAX station looking towards Utah Ice and Storage building with Rio Grande depot in distance
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