Salt Lake City Office

Setting the Scene
This brick building in downtown Salt Lake started out in 1923 as the flagship location for Auerbach’s — a storied department store in the Mountain West. Its owners, the Auerbachs, were Jewish immigrants 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 across backgrounds and faiths deserved a brighter spotlight.

Making It Happen
First, we designed a gathering space and public amenity in a tentlike structure atop the existing parking garage. We shaped the roof form to reflect both the Mormon tabernacle, which means “tent” in Latin, 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.

Next, we discovered a mezzanine space — something that was not documented in the original plans — and transformed it into a Japanese speakeasy. To provide egress for the new mezzanine and rooftop amenity, we fashioned an egress corridor out of a hidden hallway previously ridden with cobwebs and crumbling brick.

Other modernizations: 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 perimeter.