Reader comments
City Creek Center can start rising, below ground

This is great. It will be a positive for tourism and it will make our downtown more modern and beautiful. The atmosphere downtown will be more alive and upbeat. Like I said, it will be a great asset for people who come to visit our city and it will be very accessible. It shows faith in our future and that we are competitive.

Let the big dig begin!

It would be smart for CCRI to put the video up on the web--us regular shmoes would also like to see what the project may look like.

I'm glad this can finally begin. I'm a volunteer at the Church Museum. Last week a tourist told me, "I used to like to come to Salt Lake, but your downtown is so dead!" Of course visitors can go to the Gateway, but it isn't as close to the traditional sites people come to see that are unique to our city.

I believe that other cities struggle with what to do with the inner city now that malls are out in the suburbs, but with our historical landmarks downtown we really need some shops and restaurants close by these places. Let's get busy!

Oh, yeah, this will be great. New monolithic mall-heaps can't go wrong. At least not for the first 6-8 years. Then, when the City Creek appeal goes stale, we'll let the buildings rot for a few years before we build another monolithic mall-heap.

That's called "development."

Some cities insist on allowing their downtowns to grow organically, to let the history and culture of their communities bloom through decades of interactive commercial, residential, and light-industrial uses, separated by walkable distances and cross-pollinated by accessible public transit. Boston, or Paris, or San Francisco, or Portland come to mind.

Bah!

Such a scheme would require patience, austerity, a dedication to beauty, an appreciation of meaningful public space.

Better to let the Church's "development arm" make a quick fix. Again.

The Salt Lake City commission has way to much say. The project is being paid for by the L.D.S. church. The L.D.S. church owes the land. The L.D.S. church is the one who is doing the work on the project. The commission has no business getting involved so much. The project does not belong to them. The commission is over stepping there authority. The commission is a good example of big government over stepping their authority. I suggest that the commission stay out of the private sector. Salt Lake City needs to mind their own business. I have not heard a thank you from Salt Lake City to date. The L.D.S. church came to the rescue to the whims of Salt Lake City balling about not having a down town. Salt Lake City does way to much crying and not enought helping on this project. I am not impressed with Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City should be bending over back wards to help get this project going. Salt Lake City commission is comprised of mad people who must the hippies of days gone past. They apparently have very few brains and make very few good decisions.

Yeah, great examples of flourishing downtowns: Boston, Paris, San Fran, Portland. Separated by "walkable distances". The reality is, if you did try to walk across downtown in any of those cities, you'd be mugged before you reach the other side.

Yeah, that's just the kind of place I want SLC to become.

The LDS Church has a good track record of elegant beauty in its architecture - maybe you can put your prejudices aside and at least wait to see what it looks like before criticizing? Or perhaps you'd rather leave our fair city and walk through downtown Paris (I'd carry mace if I were you though)?

Are you joking me. I have spent substantial time in all of the aforementioned cities. The likelihood of getting mugged in SLC, especially the west side, is just as equal as in any of them.

Boston? are you kidding me? Definitely one of the safest cities I have spent many long nights in. I agree with JHC. Not only are we manipulating development into an "all-the-same-nothing-unique"type of growth (just like sugarhouse), we are taking away from the public sector, and natural green spaces.

If you consider big market shops that fit the agendas of the church to be elegant beauty I feel bad for you, because you truly haven't seen the beauty that cities like san fran., boston, and paris have in their unique villages and independent type stores, bars, and diners.

but if the LDS church wants something, it will get it...

Anonymous 9:09,

How is City Creek Center taking away from "the public sector"? The LDS Church owns the land! It was never "public sector" (at least, not since 1850).

How is City Creek Center taking away from "natural green spaces"? Do you know what was there before? Buildings. Before that it was dirt and cheatgrass. There hasn't been any "natural green space" there since the Mesozoic Era.

Why shouldn't the LDS Church get what it wants in this case? I'm not LDS, but they own the land and they're paying for the project. I don't know how they did things back home in the USSR, but here in America you can build with your own money on your own land.

I have lived in downtown Salt Lake City off and on since the early 80's. I love our fair city! But I am overjoyed at the prospects of having such a beautiful new center that will bring life and beauty to our jewel. I am so grateful for the LDS Church's immense generosity and foresight. There is no other city that I know of that would have a private entity come in and beautify a city to the tune of one and a half billion dollars at no cost to tax payer. Thank you LDS Church!

What's sad is there is no concern for sustainability in all of this. What an enormously missed opportunity! SLC has an opportunity to make an important statement to the world of how they have a concern for the earth and the stewardship we have been given.

When the property in question was in the hands of the public sector, it was all paved over (no green space at all), all-the-same-nothing-unique architecture (outside of the old ZCMI facade, which was an early LDS church contribution, and is being preserved), and economically stagnant. That is the public sector's legacy of land use downtown. So the church bought it. Now they propose adding green space where none was, including restoring the old city creek (or a semblance of it), adding parking space - but putting it under ground, and investing huge amounts or private capital to reinvigorate growth and enterprise. I can't speak to the architectural variety of the new buildings, as I haven't seen any concept art, but given the beauty of the properties the Church already maintains downtown, I am not worried about it. So they aren't Frank Lloyd Wright. At least the new buildings will be up to seismic code, which most of the old ones weren't. I fail to see how anything they have proposed isn't an improvement over what was there before.

Now that Rocky Voldemort has left town, things can start moving.

To be sure, Boston, San Francisco and Portland are great cities. (Can�t speak for Paris having never been.) However, please note the common thread � relatively small downtown areas blocked in by water and/or hills combined with significant commerce dependent upon their ports. Since they only had some much land to start with, they had no other choice than to optimize.

The demise of the vibrant downtown areas in the West (not just SLC) was cast with the pervasive dependence upon the automobile that occurred post WWII. Suburban sprawl became ripe for supermarkets and malls. With retailers bringing goods to consumer�s doorsteps, there was no real motivator to frequent downtown areas for shopping. Without shopping, downtown areas become vibrant 9-5 but ghost towns other hours.

Although less than ideal, huge downtown malls such as City Creek Center will bring life to an otherwise dreary downtown. It�s unfortunate but true that we are dependent upon commercialism and consumerism at so many levels.

Hats off to the Mormon Church and CCRI for taking the risk of this development.

I just want to say "Amen" to the positive comments made by BT (9:53 am); Laurie (9:21 am); Trout (6:16 am); Josh (3:54 a.m); and Anonymous (6:40 am). This is a worthwhile effort by the LDS Church, who owned most of downtown SLC since the 1800's.

I fail to see how this will not be an improvement over what was there before, but there will always be those who criticize the LDS Church no matter what they propose to do.

Let the work begin!!!!

The sky bridge is a wonderful idea. I can visualize it in my mind and see it as a drawing card to downtown Salt Lake. Delays only cost money. Everything has been approved. Let the work go forward. People are always afraid of change. But those who have trust in the LDS Church know they won't be involved in anything that doesn't bring beauty and unity to Salt Lake and be for the good of the city.

The term sky bridge needs to go. Aren't all bridges in the sky? Pedestrian bridge is a more accurate description. I move that the city of Salt Lake City replace the term sky bridge with pedestrian bridge. All in favor say Go Utes.

As a city dweller, I, too, say thank you to the LDS Church for investing such a large amount in our downtown. It should be a great benefit to our city. The plans so far look very good, and much better than the ugly ZCMI/Crossroads center malls.

Having worked in Spokane in the winter, where much of the downtown is linked by sky bridges, or pedestrian bridges if you prefer, I can personally attest to their desirability. Not only do they allow pedestrians safe access across streets, thereby better facilitating traffic flow, but they encourage foot traffic downtown by making it dryer, warmer, and safer.

It will definitely be an improvement. But it will do little to bring life to the downtown of SLC. It will bring life to those four blocks, but because they are subdividing the large blocks into lots of smaller ones, it will basically still be an enclosed mall with little spillage to the surrounding blocks. People will drive to the mall, park in it, shop, walk around a little, and then leave. What you want is a walkable/vibrant downtown, not a walkable/vibrant mall.

Having people live there will definitely help, but if it is anything like other downtowns, they will be very expensive and will turn into 2nd homes for the wealthy. Not having any of the housing as affordable will hurt this development.

And out of all the buildings for City Creek, at this point none will be green or sustainable, which is sad.

Finally, disagreeing with the execution of this development is not criticizing the LDS church.