Design | Architecture | Illustration



Williams Realty - Small Area Plan





Urban Design | Drafting | Urban Planning | Cartography



Touting low living costs and easy access to both urban and natural recourses, Salt Lake City, UT is rapidly transforming into an attractive, modern-day American city. Unfortunately, this growth has been largely unchecked and has resulted in vast swaths of urban sprawl. Wishing to avoid a similar pitfall, I was commissioned by Williams Realty to draft an alternate development plan for a 45-acre parcel of land located at the bottom of Little Cottonwood Canyon.


Emphasizing a desire to move away from single-use zoning, Williams Realty encouraged a plan that would effectively create a micro hub of commerce and community while simultaneously integrating several existing, albeit disconnected, outdoor recreational trail systems. The plans below were ultimately submitted to the city of Cottonwood Heights for review.



SITE CONTEXT





Located half a mile below Little Cottonwood Canyon, the site is split between two parcels containing majestic views but also steep, unbuildable hillsides. To the west lies La Caille creek, accessed by an underdeveloped walking path, and to the south Bell’s Canyon and the Temple Quarry trail, both popular hiking/biking destinations.



PROPOSED ZONING AND LAYOUT





​Drawing inspiration from Portland, OR, the core layout rests upon orthogonal blocks roughly 1/3 the size of standard Salt Lake blocks to encourage greater density and ease of navigation. Intermingled divisions of commercial and residential property promote zoning diversity while a procession of commercial property along a proposed main street establishes an attractive micro-urban core.



GREEN SPACE/TRAIL SYSTEM INTEGRATION





Concentrations of steep land economically unviable for construction are reserved for green spaces intended to bridge the gap between future-slated Quail Hollow Park and existing La Caille, Bell Canyon, and Temple Quarry trail systems. Ensuring accessibility to all ages and abilities, a series of easy-to-advanced trails run alongside appropriate hillside grades, further connecting the development to the surrounding natural environment.​



PUBLIC TRANSIT INTEGRATION





Seeking to integrate the development within a larger socio-environmental context, a series of new park-and-ride transit stops were proposed to simultaneously help residents better access the surrounding trail systems while also alleviating parking congestion at existing trail heads.