Auerbach’s

Aisle Say! Old Flagship Store Gets New Look

The building started out in 1923 as the flagship location for Auerbach’s, a storied department store in the Mountain West. The Auerbach’s were a Jewish retailer who had settled in predominantly Mormon Utah in the late 1800s. Over the course of decades, their family became interwoven with the LDS fabric of downtown. That unlikely harmony between people from different backgrounds deserved a brighter spotlight. The clients charged us with designing a new public amenity atop an existing parking garage. This seemed like the perfect place for a beacon emblematic of this unlikely harmony. We shaped the roof form intentionally as an homage to both the Mormon tabernacle (derived from the Latin word for tent) and the Jewish sukkah, a collapsible hut that could be easily transported through the desert. In both cases, the tent had its origins as a makeshift home for a historically displaced people. As a third layer of additional meaning, this tent harkened back to Auerbach’s original store: a humble tent on the outskirts of an 1864 mining boomtown.

In addition to this signature addition, we also discovered overlooked opportunities. A mezzanine space that was not documented in the original plans was to be made into a Japanese speak-easy. A hidden hallway rife with cobwebs and crumbling brick was converted into an exit corridor to provide egress for the new mezzanine and rooftop amenity. Other modernizations included: refurbishing dated spaces across multiple floors to accommodate new office space; creating a new entry and lobby; providing for a street level bistro; and improving the physical appearance at the street level exit.