Salt Lake City has one of the most dramatic settings of any American cities. The mountains shoot up 5,000 feet within a few miles of downtown.

Salt Lake City is actually very liberal and progressive. It has the highest percentage of professed atheists of any city in America (40%). Of course once you leave the city limits, you are in a veritable theocracy.

Don't know from personal experience, but I don't think there are any real "designy" practices in SLC. I worked for a hack in Provo for a while, though.

guess being surrounded by a declared theocracy will force all closeted agnostics and atheists to come out...

in SLC you can get off work, get your skis, put them on a city bus, and ride the city bus to alta, which is one of the most mythical and hallowed ski areas in the entire world.

that alone made me want to move there myself, except that i didn't have archinect back when i was graduating. also i too don't know of many "interesting" firms in the city.

i think it's a great city, personally. it's safe, pleasant...most mormons are extremely friendly and so are the non-mormons who are the vast majority in salt lake proper.

yes...you do have to have a "membership" to drink in a bar. yes...there are restaurants that don't serve coke or iced tea. yes...the city rolls up like a prayer mat on sundays.

but i dunno, i thought it was a great place the few times i went.

i am a fan of slc. one of my friends is there working at an architecture studio. i think its called v.c.b.o. they worked on the slc public library. if you go visit, check out the library. it's a pretty interesting space.

mormons are out and about in utah but it's less obvious in slc. it's definately the little oasis of progressiveness in utah.

It's a rough place to be a beer drinker, which I would think would greatly hamper design culture. No IPAs means no architecture.

i believe the library was designed by Moshe Safdie. VCBO must have been the local. Definitely worth a visit if you're in town. There are some interesting buildings on the U of U campus too, and of course, the new meganacle north of the temple, which has a very elaborate green roof. Looks very Albert Speer, though.

the only beers allowed to have greater than 3.2% alchohol are local microbrews, so there are quite a few brewerys in SLC. Trying to get a buzz going anywhere else is a little difficult.

I live in SLC. I just moved back to the area from Seattle. I really miss the Seattle area, but wanted to be closer to family, (for my kids) and be able to afford a house. There are a couple firms that are trying to do interesting things, but overall its a different feel here than other places I have been (seattle, montana).
Honestly, if my family wasn't here, I wouldn,t be either. Its hard to be here in many respects.
As far as architecture goes, there are less than a handful of nice, interesting buildings here. Check out Prescott Muir Architects, FFKR, and a cool little firm just starting out - Axis Architects.

I am probably pretty jaded though, me being married with kids living in a house south of salt lake, and even being one of those 'awful mormons' everyone tries to avoid.
Im sure it would be a completely different experience for a single person who can live closer to downtown.

However, the skiing/snowboarding is amazing and very close. Four choices of resorts within 1/2 hour and half a dozen within an hour away.

isn't slc the last bastion of christianity in utah, and that's why the byu-utes game is such a huge rivalry?

watch out for 'scones' in the local eating establishments - these are not a derivative of the beloved English teatime snack, but an insipid greasy lump of fried dough that is a heart attack waiting to happen. mormon cooking makes bland midwestern food seem exotic and gourmet.

actually the byu - utah rivalry is opposite of what you think. The christianity lies at byu (church school) and the utes cant stand the cougars.

scones done right are really good... fresh, hot, with honey-butter melting on it.... mmmmm like a hot krispy kreme, only more homely.

Having grown up in SLC, I have to say that, as a place to live, it is hard to beat...especially if you love anything outdoors. And I'd have probably stayed there if it weren't for the fact that the Architecture scene is pretty dry...

Having a family friend who is a single practitioner and and another friend working at a firm as a senior draftsman, their insights pretty much confirmed why I needed to leave. According to them, most design work is done by outside firms, with the local firms doing the CDs and CA. Most residential work is relatively conservative, along the Mountain Lodge retreat motifs, and while there is plenty being built, often times only a few big firms really do the work....

That said, once I get my liscense, and establish myself, I have dreams of going back, at least part time...if only for the snow....

funny, i had my first "scone" in SLC

the real version was quite a shock

but with clotted cream and tea, quite a good shock -- the mormon scone is a thing to avoid

SLC rocks. You can't beat the recreational opportunities. And nowadays it's way more liberal than it was in past decades. It's too bad that there isn't much of a design scene there but maybe that will change in coming years.

Anyone know anything about the U of Utah's architecture school? Anyone from that school out there that can shed some light?

I'm the opposite of smithlab, just moved from slc to seattle. Having lived/worked there for the past several years I'll confirm most of what's been said. Outdoor life is great ski/board in the winter, and moab/southern ut in the summer is a great package. Contrary to popular opinion you can have a good time in ut despite the dominant religion. There are a few decent bars/clubs/restaurants in slc and park city. Just don't go expecting nyc or la. I've also lived in denver, and slc was similar in a more limited & smaller scale.

As for the built environment: unfortunately its the main reason I left. People are very conservative designwise. Like silent said, similar to other mid size cities the big projects get big name out of state firms teamed w/a local detailer/stamper. The library was so w/ safdie, the museum on the UofU campus my firm was doing is done by pollack etc. On avg there is 1-2 nicely designed large project in the whole state per year. Park city is full of large expensive log homes done by "custom high end designer" architects. VCBO mostly does schools, MHTN is corporate, FFKR does casinoes among other things, and GSBS is trying to be the LEED firm, Nexus seems disorganized. None of them are a "design" firm, although they might think otherwise themselves. I won't tell you who to stay away from publicaly, but shoot me an email if your serious about moving there. There a few small groups doing decent small scale resid etc, but they are few, far between, and are hard to crack into.

In conclusion. I think there is potential in SLC for the future. The LDS (mormon) church in coop with the city has just committed towards a major downtown redevelopment. There are a few small scale condo/apt buildings and conversions in the down town area. Unfortunatly, the critial mass for all this is still at the very least 10 yrs away. I just couldn't see myself being able to wait working on boring stuff earning a comparatively low salary. (pay is pretty bad in the state) So, if being a ski bum and mountain biker are at the top of your list moving there for a few years would be great. But I doubt you would last much longer than that.

As for the local arch school, its a 4+2 prog and I wasn't especially impressed with my co-workers who were grads. They seem to be able to create cool looking renderings and computer models, but press them on the design and theory of their thesis it seemed kind of hollow. The program didn't seem to be as well rounded or rigorous as other good schools i've come in contact with. Most of the undergrads moved straight to the inhouse grad school also, which didn't seem helpful to them or to the school.

liberal huh, is this guy still around?

shaggy?

poser.