People in SLC are really nice. Strangers greet you on the street. Motorists are also more polite and patient. I had no idea how to respond. I suspect it might have something to do with there being less traffic and, in turn, less frustration. But again, even if you ignore what happens on the road, people are nice.
You will need a serious utility vehicle to navigate the topography of this region. Venturing into the surrounding canyons requires 4-wheel drive or chains during snowstorms. I was only there for a week and already I have visions of a classic Defender in my mind. Do they come in electric versions?
The streets are too wide for proper enjoyment as a pedestrian. This is a challenging problem to fix, as I have mentioned before. That said -- and this is going to be an unpopular opinion -- the city felt void of any sort of real traffic. The distances travelled are great, but the highways actually flow freely. You also never really need to worry about parking.
Electric scooters are popular in SLC. As is cycling -- both for getting around and as a reason to wear tight-fitting bright clothes.
People in SLC are really nice. Strangers greet you on the street. Motorists are also more polite and patient. I had no idea how to respond. I suspect it might have something to do with there being less traffic and, in turn, less frustration. But again, even if you ignore what happens on the road, people are nice.
You will need a serious utility vehicle to navigate the topography of this region. Venturing into the surrounding canyons requires 4-wheel drive or chains during snowstorms. I was only there for a week and already I have visions of a classic Defender in my mind. Do they come in electric versions?
The streets are too wide for proper enjoyment as a pedestrian. This is a challenging problem to fix, as I have mentioned before. That said -- and this is going to be an unpopular opinion -- the city felt void of any sort of real traffic. The distances travelled are great, but the highways actually flow freely. You also never really need to worry about parking.
Electric scooters are popular in SLC. As is cycling -- both for getting around and as a reason to wear tight-fitting bright clothes.
SLC feels as if it is both under the radar and also rapidly emerging. My new favorite restaurant in SLC is a place called Post Office Place. We walked in without a reservation on a Friday night and they gladly took us. I couldn't understand why the place wasn't rammed. I mean, they have Marseille-style panisse on the menu!
The Granary District is an area to watch. It is a former industrial area to the southwest of downtown. It is already home to breweries, food halls, and creative offices. But it needs some more time to properly fill in. We stayed at the Evo Hotel in Granary (highly recommend). The campus amenities include a rock climbing facility, an indoor skatepark, and plenty of places to work and Zoom.
Most of the new infill housing appears to be mid-rise in scale and most of it is wood-frame construction on top of concrete.
By my estimation (and by estimation I mean that I have a spreadsheet for this), the ski and snowboard communities surrounding SLC are some of the most accessible in North America. Land at SLC airport and you're in the mountains in 20-30 minutes.
Park City-Canyons is the most well-known ski destination. But if you're a more aggressive skier -- the kind that keeps your gloves together with duct tape and counts the number of ski days per season -- you'll want to head over to the Cottonwood canyons and places like Snowbird and Brighton.
Snowbird remains one of my all-time favorite ski destinations for two reasons: the mountain itself and the brutalist architecture at the bottom of it. There's none of that faux alpine crap over here -- just exposed and unabashed concrete and wood. And who doesn't love brutalism, right? (I haven't been to Brighton yet but one of my local friends told me that it's a great snowboarders mountain.)
The Canyons Village at Park City is developing really nicely. As I understand it, it's only about 30-40% built out at this stage. The Pendry Hotel just recently opened (announcement here) and I can tell you that the restaurants were generally busy every night of the week (summer experience). The project team did a wonderful job creating a place and a new anchor in the village.
Salt Lake City is not a walking city. The blocks are too big (660 feet x 660 feet) and the streets are too wide (132 feet) for that. This has translated into many of the streets have upwards of 6 lanes. To put this into further context, here is a block comparison chart from 99% Invisible:
SLC feels as if it is both under the radar and also rapidly emerging. My new favorite restaurant in SLC is a place called Post Office Place. We walked in without a reservation on a Friday night and they gladly took us. I couldn't understand why the place wasn't rammed. I mean, they have Marseille-style panisse on the menu!
The Granary District is an area to watch. It is a former industrial area to the southwest of downtown. It is already home to breweries, food halls, and creative offices. But it needs some more time to properly fill in. We stayed at the Evo Hotel in Granary (highly recommend). The campus amenities include a rock climbing facility, an indoor skatepark, and plenty of places to work and Zoom.
Most of the new infill housing appears to be mid-rise in scale and most of it is wood-frame construction on top of concrete.
By my estimation (and by estimation I mean that I have a spreadsheet for this), the ski and snowboard communities surrounding SLC are some of the most accessible in North America. Land at SLC airport and you're in the mountains in 20-30 minutes.
Park City-Canyons is the most well-known ski destination. But if you're a more aggressive skier -- the kind that keeps your gloves together with duct tape and counts the number of ski days per season -- you'll want to head over to the Cottonwood canyons and places like Snowbird and Brighton.
Snowbird remains one of my all-time favorite ski destinations for two reasons: the mountain itself and the brutalist architecture at the bottom of it. There's none of that faux alpine crap over here -- just exposed and unabashed concrete and wood. And who doesn't love brutalism, right? (I haven't been to Brighton yet but one of my local friends told me that it's a great snowboarders mountain.)
The Canyons Village at Park City is developing really nicely. As I understand it, it's only about 30-40% built out at this stage. The Pendry Hotel just recently opened (announcement here) and I can tell you that the restaurants were generally busy every night of the week (summer experience). The project team did a wonderful job creating a place and a new anchor in the village.
Salt Lake City is not a walking city. The blocks are too big (660 feet x 660 feet) and the streets are too wide (132 feet) for that. This has translated into many of the streets have upwards of 6 lanes. To put this into further context, here is a block comparison chart from 99% Invisible:
Our week of working remotely in the mountains of Utah has come to an end. Being on mountain time meant early mornings every day. But it also meant being able to enjoy the evenings, including sunsets like the one shown here at the top of Ensign Peak. This was my first time really experiencing the Salt Lake City area in the summer, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. It is a beautiful place, and one that still feels under the radar once you exclude its global draw as a ski and snowboard destination. I also had a great time capturing it on my camera. So I'm excited to share my latest NFT photography collection -- Utah. All of the photos were taken on my Fujifilm X-T3 (35mm) and can be viewed and purchased over here on Foundation.
In the past, I have called this inheritance one of the greatest city building challenges. Because once you've designed a city around the car, it can be hard to move away from that. But as I have also said in the past, there are, of course, lots of things that can be done to make a place more hospitable to pedestrians.
What is also interesting is that, according to 99% Invisible, the original intent for Salt Lake City's urban grid was not for its large 660 x 660 blocks to serve as a rigid and immutable plan for the city. The intent was that its large blocks would be further subdivided into smaller blocks as the city grew and developed.
Other than maybe a few examples, this never happened. Salt Lake City's large blocks remain a defining characteristic of the city. But who is to say it's too late for change?
Our week of working remotely in the mountains of Utah has come to an end. Being on mountain time meant early mornings every day. But it also meant being able to enjoy the evenings, including sunsets like the one shown here at the top of Ensign Peak. This was my first time really experiencing the Salt Lake City area in the summer, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. It is a beautiful place, and one that still feels under the radar once you exclude its global draw as a ski and snowboard destination. I also had a great time capturing it on my camera. So I'm excited to share my latest NFT photography collection -- Utah. All of the photos were taken on my Fujifilm X-T3 (35mm) and can be viewed and purchased over here on Foundation.
In the past, I have called this inheritance one of the greatest city building challenges. Because once you've designed a city around the car, it can be hard to move away from that. But as I have also said in the past, there are, of course, lots of things that can be done to make a place more hospitable to pedestrians.
What is also interesting is that, according to 99% Invisible, the original intent for Salt Lake City's urban grid was not for its large 660 x 660 blocks to serve as a rigid and immutable plan for the city. The intent was that its large blocks would be further subdivided into smaller blocks as the city grew and developed.
Other than maybe a few examples, this never happened. Salt Lake City's large blocks remain a defining characteristic of the city. But who is to say it's too late for change?
