AGC of Utah’s members donated $2.2 million to construct a new 9,000-sq-ft, $3.7-million headquarters that opened in November.

Rich Thorn, president/CEO of AGC of Utah, says that more than $2.2 million of the total project cost was donated by AGC members. The rest of the building was funded with the sale of the old headquarters in downtown Salt Lake, along with equity that was built up over time.

“This project is a testament to our members and their commitment to our association,” Thorn says. “Despite tough economic times, we’ve had firms collaborate and donate money and resources to this project.”

The project broke ground in late 2008 and took a little more than a year to complete. Firms such as Jacobsen Construction and Salt Lake-based Big-D Construction provided estimating services, while Layton Construction committed a full-time project superintendent.

The building was designed by architect Ralph Stanislaw, principal of Salt Lake-based Archiplex Group.

Construction is well under way on a revitalization in downtown Salt Lake City.

City Creek Center, a mixed-use project located directly south of Temple Square and spanning two city blocks, is expected to attract 10 million visitors a year upon completion in spring 2012.

Global architecture and design firm Callison, in collaboration with other designers, provided the retail master plan and architectural and interior design for the retail and for-rent residential components.

Retail along the two blocks will be anchored by Nordstrom and Macy’s.

The Utah Dept. of Transportation recently completed its Innovate 80 campaign, which consists of 12 projects on or near Interstate 80 between Salt Lake City and the Wyoming boarder.

The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act-funded project included the construction of 16 new bridges between 300 South and Highland Drive and a new bridge deck on State Street. Each bridge was constructed through an accelerated bridge construction process and believed to be the fastest replacement of bridges in the world, according to Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction of Draper, the general contractor for the Innovate 80 campaign.

National Geographic filmed a segment of the project for a program called “World’s Toughest Fixes,” which addresses bridge replacements. UDOT anticipates replacing 500 bridges statewide over the next 10 years using accelerated bridge construction.

The total length of the 16 bridges on the projects measure 1,953 ft long and weigh 24.5 million lb. Seven of the projects were financed by the ARRA for $36.5 million. The Innovate 80 projects have employed more than 1,400 workers, staff and contractors.

Stanley Consultants of Salt Lake City served as the engineer on the projects.

Construction has completed on the $27-million Unified State Laboratories project in Taylorsville, Utah.

Big-D Construction began the three-story, 78,000-sq-ft project in July 2007. The Utah Division of Facilities Construction and Management owns the building. The steel structure is finished in metal panel and masonry. The facility is being designed and constructed through a hybrid collaborative design process by VCBO Architecture, SmithGroup and Big-D Construction.

The building contains public health labs, BSL3 suite, chemistry labs, biology labs, forensic toxicology, administrative offices, common space and building support. The Unified State Laboratory Facility was designed and built to meet the unique requirements of the project. Such requirements include safety features to address hazardous and biohazardous materials, major security features, efficiency features such as lab and bench workstations, along with laboratory-specific systems for exhaust, water and refrigeration.

The new building will be occupied this month and will officially open in April.

People/Firms

Kit Farley has joined Envision Engineering’s Salt Lake City office as a project manager. Farley has more than 29 years of electrical design and project management on project types such as public works, health care, retail, parks and recreation, military and educational facilities.