Salt Lake City’s Granary District will be in the spotlight Friday as students from Utah State University’s Architecture and Environmental Planning Department present their vision of that area’s future. The 8th South 5th West area is being redeveloped and city planners and USU students are teaming up in the design process. Macklin Stoddard is one of the 17 students working on the project. He says they don’t want to make the district something it isn’t.
“We’re kind of wanting to celebrate what the Granary is and celebrate that industrial feel,” says Stoddard.
Student Dana Crosson says that section of town is unique but has transportation infrastructure and pedestrian challenges. She says the group spent hours in the space just observing the flow of people and cars.
“We’ve noticed that there are things there but they’re just so sporadic and they need to be connected,” Crosson says.
Molly O’Neill Robinson is the Urban Designer for the Salt Lake City Planning Division. She says these students are getting real-world experience with a challenging project and they bring valuable vision.
“If you don’t know there’s a rule you don’t know you can break it and it’s a great to approach design problems sometimes is to kind of throw the rules out the window and attack it from a different angle,” O’Neill Robinson says.
The students are presenting their design concepts at an open meeting before city officials and the public Friday at the City’s Main Library, in Conference Room 4 at 3pm.
