For years, the most centrally located place to get a fast-food hamburger in downtown Salt Lake City was at the corner of State Street and 200 South, a fact not unknown or unappreciated by Deseret News employees back when the newspaper’s offices were less than half a block away on Regent Street.
It seemed a street corner only big enough for a Carl’s Jr., a drive-thru lane and a small parking area was destined to serve charbroiled burgers forever.
Until somebody with a vision decided it would be the perfect location for Utah’s highest building.
On the theory that what can’t go wider can always go higher, a development company (KIS) bought the corner, tore down the burger joint, partnered with an architecture firm (HKS) and a construction company (Jacobsen), and created the Astra Tower, an upscale apartment building with 377 units that soars 451 feet into the city sky. That’s 29 feet higher than the Wells Fargo Center and 31 feet higher than the Church Office Building, which, legend once had it, could never be topped.
The irony is, there was never any attempt to be the tallest building in Utah. The original plan was for 32 floors, but that was before it was discovered there needed to be more additional underground parking and an additional elevator, all of it raising the structure until it topped out at 41 floors and the record 451 feet.
At that, “this won’t be the tallest building for long,” says Shane Rensmon of Kensington Investment Co., the firm that developed the Astra Tower. “I just heard the other day about plans for people putting up buildings in Salt Lake that are 550, 580 feet.”
And not to be picky, but the actual record for tallest human-made structure in Utah is the 1,215-foot Kennecott Copper Smokestack, although there is no observation deck and no one lives there.
But if the height of Astra Tower was unintentional, most everything else was — including a commitment to a clean air design that might best be summed up as if-it’s-smoggy-outside-don’t-blame-us.
From the beginning, the goal was to achieve LEED Gold Certification, which basically means getting an A-plus from the U.S. Green Building Council, the nonprofit that sets the worldwide standard for sustainable construction.
What that means in the Astra Tower, among other features, is a central air intake system that filters the outside air coming into the building before sending it straight to the living units, bypassing any dirt and sediments that might be picked up in corridors and carpets.
“Instead of bringing in air directly from outside, like a lot of residential buildings do, we’re actually doing it in one single location where we can filter it, and we’re using the filters that are normally used in hospitals,” says Emir Tursic, a lead architect on the project. “So we’re really cleaning that air to the maximum degree that’s possible or feasible. And then it’s being ducted individually to the residents.
“Our hope is, when that air is finally released back into the atmosphere, that it’s actually cleaner than when it came in.”
Then there’s the air quality beacon on top of the building.
When it’s lit in white, that means the forecast for the next day’s air quality in the city is good, orange is getting sketchy, red is alarming and purple is bad.
The hope is that the beacon — the first of its kind in the world — will raise public awareness about air quality and act as a kind of community conscience to help prod people into enacting measures that keep the light white much more often than purple.
Additional conservancy measures in the Astra include water taps with low flow fixtures, resulting in at least 25% less water usage than a conventional water system, and a building that is predominantly electric, with LED lights throughout and electric charging stations for cars and bicycles.
“We’re big on sustainability, so anything we build is legal or better,” says Rensmon. “The design team envisioned Astra Tower as a transformative project, not only for its residents but for the broader Salt Lake Valley.”
It won’t be the cheapest apartment building in town. Real estate websites list monthly rental rates from $1,565 to $6,080 (for studio, one- and two-bedroom units that range from 454 square feet to 1,312 square feet). According to Rensmon, prices on the highest units haven’t yet been set.
Included in the price is a fitness center, a pool, a hot tub, a sauna, an urban park with real grass and trees and of course an observation deck on the 41st floor with killer views in all directions and no obstructions, guaranteed.
Everything but Carl’s Jr. burgers in the lobby. Progress always comes with a price.
