Callison’s Unique Indoor-Outdoor Development

Here’s the press release:

Global architecture and design firm Callison celebrated the completion of the nations only large scale mixed-use development to open this year. Located in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, City Creek is a sustainably designed, walkable urban community of residences, offices and retail stores expanding over 23 acres across three city blocks.

Working with City Creek Reserve, Inc. and Taubman Centers, Inc., Callison provided architectural planning and design for the retail and for-rent residential components of the mixed-use project. The goal of the design was to embrace the culture and history of the city, creating an environment that had an urban vibe with an outdoor look and feel.

The development was conceived as a truly urban environment with outdoor streets and landscaping integrated with the mixed-use components of residential and office, said Stan Laegreid, principal on the project at Callison. Due to the open nature of the retail streets and the incorporation of the downtown street grid, the development feels like a community within the city rather than a conventional shopping center.

The retail design Callison created was what helped us realize the potential of the development, said Bill Williams, director of architecture at City Creek Reserve, Inc. The design embraces our goal to provide open areas with dramatic vistas of the city and surrounding mountains, while still creating an urban neighborhood and shopping experience.

The new shopping center: indoor, outdoor and in between

City Creek Center, the retail centerpiece of the mixed-use development, gets its name from historic City Creek, the snow-fed source of drinking and irrigation water that flowed through the northern Salt Lake Valley when pioneering settlers first arrived in 1847. A re-creation of the creek meanders through the center, at times forming into waterfalls. The creek is stocked with trout and planted with native species reflective of the proximity of Salt Lake Citys dramatic natural setting.

The fully retractable glass roof provides a climate-controlled shopping experience year-round as well as temporary cover and heating during inclement weather. The skylight is designed to cradle into a tucked position so that it is not visible when it is open. Since the projects retail center spans three city blocks there are two separate skylights and the end walls of the corridors required glazing and operable glass panels to complete the enclosure.

Callison also designed the new Nordstrom, one of the anchor tenants. The unique exterior features a two-story translucent glass wall of LED lights that are programmable for an infinite number of effects. As the only Nordstrom exterior of its kind, the facade integrates art glass, merchandising windows and a dramatic two-story entrance.

Urban sustainability

The overall City Creek project was awarded LEED Stage 2, Silver certification. Three residential buildings and two office buildings within the development were awarded Gold certification. City Creek also is part of a pilot program for the new LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED ND) certification process which integrates principles of smart growth and green building into the first national rating system for neighborhood design.

The development is a model of how density and urban integration in a smaller market city can be fully realized. The retail, office and residential spaces contained within the three blocks are within walking distance of many of Salt Lake Citys civic institutions, transportation hubs, entertainment, hospitality and other urban amenities. If this mix was taken to the suburbs, as they have traditionally been developed, it would require around 180 acres; nearly 8 times the area of City Creek. This doesnt take into account the reduced number of automobile trips and the increased attraction of the pedestrian shopping center as a destination for visitors.