0109

Name
University of Utah Art and Architecture Complex
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
Date
1970
Client
University of Utah
Area
167, 874 SF
Awards
2006 AIA Utah Chapter – 25 Year Award
Publications
Salt Lake Tribune 1971, The Daily Utah Chronicle 1971

Designed to house the University’s arts and architecture schools, fine arts museum, and sculpture studio, this award-winning building became one of the finest visual arts centers in the country with its completion in 1970. The facility comprises studio workshops, exhibition galleries for each department, as well as the first permanent home for the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

As an educational building still used today in the training of future architects, the structure acts as a skillful teacher and an active participant in the pedagogic process. The building’s highly organized spatial plan is a direct reflection of the design of its concrete framing: a tartan grid of concrete post-and-beam defines zones of circulation, studio workspace, and mechanical.

A monumental structure composed of concrete, brick, and cedar paneling, it represents the first example of brutalist architecture in Utah. The dramatic textural differences and natural colors of the materials express a local materiality, adapting international modernist principles to the context of the Intermountain West.