Apartments Bring Retail and Affordable Living to an Underutilized Site
KTGY, an award-winning design firm focused on architecture, interior design, branded environments and urban design, along with partner Brinshore Development, L.L.C. celebrate the grand opening of SPARK, an integrative new development located on Salt Lake City’s west side. Replacing a blighted motel, the mixed-use podium building creates 200 new subsidized affordable residential units on a two-acre site directly across from the Power Station TRAX stop. KTGY and Brinshore are excited to celebrate another Salt Lake success after partnering to turn the long-stalled project on Main Street into urban affordable living with The Aster.
“Spark is more than just an affordable housing development, it’s a vibrant community hub. In addition to providing much-needed housing, it offers affordable daycare operated by Neighborhood House, direct access to public transit via the TRAX station across the street, and family-friendly amenities such as a children’s play-area, dog wash, and a 1-acre interior park,” said David Brint, Founding Principal, Brinshore Development. “This project came to fruition thanks to a remarkable collaboration among partners including the Salt Lake City CRA, Utah Housing Corporation, the Utah Private Activity Bond board, the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City, Olene Walker, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City Department of Housing Stability, Goldman Sachs, Citi Bank, and Neighborhood House. As a bonus, Spark also became the new home for a beloved community institution – Star of India.”
The building creates a welcoming and transitional presence through its size, scale and open amenities. The ground floor frontage along North Temple offers retail space for local businesses, including a crucially needed childcare facility. A new East/West connection provides lushly landscaped open space where residents and the public can stop and soak in the outdoors, walk their pets, or watch their children play.
As a transit-oriented development, SPARK provides bike parking as well as a one-story parking garage. A multi-modal trail for pedestrians on the building’s north end creates a connection between the neighborhood and the TRAX stop, while terraced roofs step the scale of the building back from the street and create an elevated courtyard for residents.
Color, materiality, and texture take their cues from some of the durable materials in the adjacent power plant, including brick, steel and metal paneling that nod to this industrial past while being re-composed in a clean and modern format. The copper brown corrugated metal panels and dark charcoal brick at the base of the building is offset by light, airy paneling with bright colored accents on the higher volumes, softened even more by a landscaped terrace.
Address: 1490 W. North Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84116
KTGY Partners: Brinshore Development, L.L.C.
Architect: KTGY
Floors: 6
Residences: 200
Mixed-Use Space: 11,500 sq. ft. (Daycare, Restaurant and Bodega)
Parking: 100, wrapped one-story garage
Design Highlights: Industrial and durable materials softened by greenery and street scale. Name and asymmetrical massing inspired by nearby power plant. Building composition reflects the varied uses within it: each function is expressed in clear building masses that signal the program within.
Features: Purpose-designed childcare facility, multi-modal crossing, retail storefront, TOD, bike storage, landscaped courtyard, 100% of units affordable
Certification: Enterprise Green Communities
About KTGY
Design lives at KTGY. Founded in 1991, KTGY is an award-winning firm of architects, designers and planners that realize new possibilities through inspired design. Everything we do, from architecture and interior design to branded environments and urban design is based on a people-centric storytelling and design process that creates memorable experiences nationwide. Guided by our mission to bring innovative design to all people and places, we partner with our clients to envision spaces that make a positive impact on people and their communities.