argyleist

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Boozer does not opt out?

After all the boohoozering that he distracted the team with while sitting on the bench!

Labels: Rant, Utah Jazz

Friday, May 29, 2009

Particleist #4 - Superheroes

Not real, but ideal. Saving the world and getting the girl. Or not.

Particleist #4

1. Bedroom Eyes - (Here's One for You) Underdog

2. Unwritten Law - Superman

3. Long Beach Shortbus - Every Super Hero Needs a Theme Song

4. Neal Hefti - Batman

5. Latterman- If Batman Was Real. He Would Have Beaten The Crap Out Of My Friends

6. The Pixies - Tony's Theme

7. Weird Al Yankovic - Ode To A Superhero

8. Ramones - Spider-man

9. Less Than Jake - Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts

10. The Flaming Lips - Waitin' for a Superman (Mokran Mix)

11. The Butthole Surfers - Underdog

12. Veruca Salt - Spiderman '79

13. Joey Scarbury - Believe It Or Not

14. The Bouncing Souls - Kids and Heroes

Labels: Music, Particleist

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Hot Dogs on V-Day

Now that is romance ... Do kids still decorate cardboard boxes for exchanging these style of cards at school, or are they all now just e-nostalgia for those aged enough to remember them?

Labels: Food, Holiday

Monday, January 19, 2009

Particleist #3 - Piano Numbers

Listen to piano music, some good ones, all in a row.
Particleist #3

1. Mum - We Have Map of the Piano

2. Dawn Landes - Toy Piano

3. Vince Guaraldi - Willow Weep For Me

4. Smashing Pumpkins - My Blue Heaven

5. Ray Charles - Heartbreaker

6. The Buhdda Machine - Piano Triad

7. Carl Orff - Cours D'Amour

8. The Samuel Jackson Five - Slow Motion Simulator

9. Ben Folds - Bitch Went Nuts

10. Hauschka - Morgenrot

11. Tin Hat Trio - Osborne Avenue

Labels: Music, Particleist

Monday, January 12, 2009

My Pic is in a Scholarship Contest, Vote for it PLEASE

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR MY ENTRY

You could vote for it, and I could get $500 for school! And wouldn't that be cool?

I was rockin' at a Weezer show when the whole crowd started throwin' up their W's, so I snapped this picture.

Labels: School

Friday, January 09, 2009

Considering Urban Trails

I have been fascinated by the idea of urban trails or non-motorized pathways. I feel that the sidewalks on the edges of four lanes of auto traffic are very intimidating to walking or biking as ones primary mode of transportation. Urban trails can offer a significant beatification and enjoyment element to cities. As well as instill a pride of place, and provide knowledge of history and culture to its users. The trails can ease auto traffic congestion, and even make neighborhoods more desirable places to live. And, it undoubtedly makes us healthier.

I first became interested in the idea of urban trails when I was visiting Santa Cruz, California, where I camped with some friends on an old farmer's property for a few nights. The campsite was situated on the edge of his property line, and marked by a wall of ivy weaving through a chain link fence. I had initially assumed it was just a next door neighbor's property, but as I ventured back to have a look I noticed train tracks. I wondered if we'd awake to passing trains in the night. As the evening went by many people walked through there, along the railroad tracks.

I returned home to learn about many rail trails in the U.S., or defunct railroad lines that have been converted into recreational and commuter pathways. The trail I had seen in Santa Cruz was a fairly new development, in which the County of Santa Cruz purchased 30+ miles of abandoned track and land from Union Pacific with the intention of using for it as a bicycle/commuter corridor by creating a paved pathway beside the tracks. The county is now considering putting in a rail car service on the track in the near future. (Santa Cruz County - Friends of the Rail Trail)

On another trip I was in Boise, Idaho, and I became very envious of “The Greenbelt” that runs along the Boise River, connecting the many parks and city attractions along the way. The amount of scenery provided is immense, and a great compliment to the look and lifestyle of the city. I marveled at the trail as it filtered hundreds of families from the residential areas into the parks on the greenway (Cowan 168) for a 4th of July holiday celebration.

I have been increasingly aware of how these urban trail systems provide an appealing alternative to automobile transportation, while at the same time connecting neighborhoods, and helping economies. Urban trails are pleasurable elements that create a higher quality of life in cities.

At home I began to take more notice of the Jordan River that flows from Utah Lake to The Great Salt Lake through the Salt Lake valley. Efforts by Salt Lake County and Envision Utah are well underway to make the parkway a greater public space. They also aim to protect and care for the river for future generations to enjoy and embrace. Blueprint Jordan River is an early vision for what the 58 miles of Jordan River will become over the next 50 years and more. Public input has been crucial in devising ways to make the river a positive resource for the whole community to enjoy. (Duke)

I talked with Gabe Epperson at Envision Utah about some of the things that are involved in the construction of urban trails. It seems that the biggest obstacles in any urban trail construction relate to the many existing land uses such as private ownership, and different types of development. Recently several large retail, office and residential buildings have been built near the Jordan River, and that is a concern to efforts that try to preserve open space in the rivers corridor. Some other large sections remain undeveloped, but are privately owned so that could change rather quickly.

Currently the Jordan River Parkway is used primarily for recreation, winding through the Salt Lake area residential suburbs. Still, the path is suitable for cycling commuters and it sees a bit of this type of use. The future high-speed commuter rail line (FrontRunner), which will eventually run from Ogden to Provo, has a few planned stops that are near the parkway. People exiting at these stations will have definite impacts on the river, and the number of commuting users on the trail. Development seems inevitable, but preservation efforts and restoration of the natural river habitat are strongly favored by most area residents. (Duke)

I took notice to some abandoned rail tracks running through my own neighborhood in South Salt Lake. Ignoring the no trespassing signs posted, I will sometimes walk through the strip of neglected land and I try to envision something there that would connect me to places that would I normally get in my car and drive to.

I soon discovered that the tracks by my house were being considered as a route for a future rail transit line being. But also as a section of trail under the Parley's Trail project.

The Parley's Rails, Trails and Tunnels (PRATT) Coalition aims to construct a pedestrian/cyclist path that would connect the Jordan River Parkway to the people living in Sugar House and South Salt Lake neighborhoods. This trail would have a definite impact on the Jordan River Parkway bringing in a flow of users.

When complete, Parley's Trail would extend all the way from the Jordan river Parkway to the canyons in the East where it would connect to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, another current and extensive trail building effort. Parley's Trail will run in close proximity to Parley's Creek, and the I-80 corridor. It is almost completely non-existent in the landscape today.

Parley's Trail is also being considered as part of a larger plan called the Wasatch Loop Trail in which it would provide an important link in a continuous network of the many existing and developing trails spanning seven counties in the region. (Mountainland Association - About the Wasatch Loop Trail)

The majority of the area along the trail route is rich with history. Native Americans called Parley's Creek "Obit-Ko-Ke-Che". (Youngberg 19) Since the early 1900's factories, mills, a rail road, a prison, and other trades have been in operation along Parley's Creek. The foundations of some buildings are preserved in Parley's Nature Park.

Today the corridor serves, as it did for many of the Mormon pioneers, the main entrance to the Salt Lake Valley from the East. The first highway was constructed 1956, and would eventually become Interstate 80 on the Interstate Highway System implemented in the 1960's. (Youngberg 115) A few miles to the West Interstate 80 and Interstate 15 merge together on route to downtown Salt Lake City.

Many groups have expressed a desire to incorporate the trail as an educational tool in the communities. It could naturally teach and preserve an amount of important culture and history of the area. The PRATT Coalition has recognized this as an advantageous feature.

The streets in the area are large, and built to handle the traffic accessing the Interstate Freeways. It seems to have become the standard to give very little consideration to other modes of transportation. The result is that other modes are discouraged and at times even dangerous. Though recent efforts have been made to making the streets better for bicyclist, with Parley's Trail people will gain a new option of walking or biking to many destinations, on a course that doesn't place them secondary to the automobile, as it does on street travel options now available. The trail faces getting its users safely across many of the North-South traffic arteries. It will do this with bridges, tunnels, and on-street crossings.

The PRATT coalition envisions a non-motorized multi-use trail. They hope many people will use it to get to work, or to go shopping. They also aim for a green (Cowan 166) style and approach to the trail, meant to be appealing to outdoor leisure and recreation activities. The group sees importance in connecting the trail to as many open spaces, parks and public amenities as possible. The PRATT Coalition also believes in developing each section as a local neighborhood asset to the people living in the surrounding residential neighborhoods. (Salt Lake County 24)

The heavy retail development along with the roads built to handle large volumes of auto traffic has in effect has sectored up the neighborhoods in between. This trail could provide a pedestrian spine (Cowan 285) for residents of the surrounding neighborhoods. It could connect them to each other, and to the many enriching attractions such as libraries, schools and churches. I suspect that under heavy use this trail will demand that better pedestrian and bicycle accommodations be made on the North-South running streets, in which the Parley's Trail users will be filtering out onto.

The trail will connect people living in the vicinity to a number of retail areas that provide jobs and shopping to the users of the trail. The proximity to Interstate 80 makes it easy for shoppers to come from far away, and they do. The trail could considerably reduce the amount of cars vying for the limited parking spaces now needed for the area’s residents to go shopping.

There are countless numbers of concerns involved in the construction of this trail. It is an extensive project which aspires for a variety of goals. Small individual sections will come with their own unique sets of concern.

In one of the PRATT board meetings I attended, a current topic of concern is the mixing of uses on the trail, specifically in the Parley's Historic Nature Park where that area has been extremely popular with dog owners because of a large off leash space that it provides. A recent adjustment to the trail alignment was made to lessen impacts on the environment, and to the historical features that are in the park. However, the realignment also places the trail directly through the center of the off leash area.

The concern is that some users of the trail may feel threatened by the dogs, and so would be discouraged from using the trail freely. While the dog owner's highly value the area as their designated space, they don't want that to be taken away. Solving the problem with fences was a concern as they may cause dogs to feel more threatened, and possibly this could promote more unfortunate incidents, rather than avoid them.

In a PRATT Coalition Board meeting, Rick Graham, a parks director for Salt Lake City, expressed passionate concern about dividing the park into so many pieces based on use. "Dissecting the park into sections for its separate uses would not benefit the park as a whole. The place could lose its appeal to the community as a large open space." Rick believes that responsible people being there for many different park uses should be able to coexist in the park without having to fabricate many physical borders and fences.

I feel that the best solution for this problem would be to make outstanding efforts to educate all users about the broad number of uses going on. To encourage many uses, and then, if needed, incorporate kinds of natural boundaries for the off leash area, or designated use spaces, as opposed to erecting fences. Communicate all of this to everyone trough signs maps posted at entrance points, and along the trail. Successful neighborhood parks such as Parley's Nature Historic Park depend on diverse uses. The space is large enough to be both a generalized use area with the trail passing through, and a specialized park with the off leash area. (Jacobs 139-142)

I think one of the most important issues will be in keeping the trail safe and pleasant. It should be able to provide a secure and comfortable feeling to users of the trail at all times. The efforts towards this trail could all be wasted, if it ends up being unused, and unwanted by the surrounding community. This has been an expressed concern with Salt Lake County and The PRATT Coalition. (Salt Lake County 3) It can best be handled by a deep community involvement in the trails design and future maintenance. With this trail this is complicated because the trail, like many trails, spans a significant distance, and influences many areas differently. If the trail is constructed considering the wishes of people living close by, it should naturally be used and loved more frequently.

Getting a maximum amount of different users consistently on the trail will be a key component to the success of this trail. To do this the trail will need to be able to encourage a large number of uses. Under used parks tend to have a higher potential of becoming canvases for vandalism and other crime. Then they often transmit negative effects to the surrounding neighborhoods. (Jacobs 123) Parley's Trail is quite different form just a park, one of the goals is to connect the parks in a green chain (Cowan 167), that would in theory, increase the users of many parks. I would expect this to be true especially in the Sugar House are, where a tunnel under 1300 East will connect the shopping area to the large open space in Sugar House Park, as well as to nearby Fairmont Park.

It is highly possible that this trail will also have huge impacts on the growing number of residents that the South Salt Lake area expects to see. Currently there are many warehouses and light industrial businesses here. These are without much residential presence, and so could lack an amount of public surveillance that other sections of the trail will have. (Jacobs 127-129) The landscape is sure to change significantly to accommodate new residents expected in coming years. There are a few developments of size that would place a lot more people living in the West side of South Salt Lake. Parley's Trail will likely be used by a number of these new residents to access the 2100 South TRAX station.

A different set of uses would be presented in a section that will infiltrate into the well established neighborhoods where many people already live. The users of these sections will not only be the commuters that are passing through, but possibly could be predominantly children riding bikes and skateboards, or people out for an evening jog, more short distance use. So these types of neighborhood uses are certainly being considered in the trail design. A trail centered on only commuter use would be very hurtful to neighborhoods.

Though this trail should provide another option for transportation that doesn't involve the use of a personal automobile, it should not be designed with only that single use of the commuter in mind. It is essential that the whole trail act as much like small successful parks. The areas around the trail need to produce a mixture of users who come and go at different times throughout the day. (Jacobs 125)

A mix will be easier to achieve with the help of the UTA transit system. Across the Wasatch Front, efforts towards development of these trail systems are happening alongside the expansion of the public transit rail system. An excellent regional urban trail system could play a very significant role in the success of the whole Utah Transit Authority (UTA) system, and vice-versa. Especially true on the Wasatch Front because there are many proposed rail transit lines and stations are very close to one of these urban trails under development. An urban trail network could create a more successful neighborhoods and economic centers, while increasing the ridership on the whole UTA system.

In the South Valley suburbs of Salt Lake County, the FrontRunner train is planning multiple stations that are near the Jordan River Parkway. Near these stations there are expected to be some Transit Oriented Developments (Cowan 405) going up that will bring a dense population close to the river's banks.

On the Parley's Trail, the preferred route would follow a future transit rail line, possibly a historic trolley car transporting people to and from the Sugar House area, and the TRAX station at 2100 South. From there Parley's Trail continues westward on elevated walkway as it parallels the future West Valley TRAX bridge across the "Spaghetti Bowl" (Cowan 367), until it reaches the Jordan River Parkway. The future of the Parley's trail in particular is heavily dependent on the cooperation of two separate UTA projects.

The Parley's Trail is unique in that the timing of its construction could possibly of happen alongside the construction of the modern transit rail lines. Planning the track and trail together could significantly reduce a variety of overall costs, as opposed to undertaking each problem individually. This would allow for the two transportation options to compliment cooperate with each other, to intertwine their design. This would add to higher commuter use on the trail as well. Parley's trail would run just a few steps away from future rail transit lines that will connect to the population of the whole region. The transit line will drastically populate the trail.

The PRATT Coalition and the Salt Lake County Government have spent at least the last 5 years considering these, and many other issues. Only recently have small sections of Parley's Trail began to enter completed status. The trail route has gone through many alternative route considerations, and will have to deal with even more to complete the trail in the coming years.

In attending the PRATT Coalition board meetings I became aware of how people involved believe in the vision of that trail for a wide variety of reasons. And it is fueled by donations of time and expertise by many. I myself, left the meetings feeling empowered, and wanting to contribute personally to the effort, and I did this by helping them produce a yearly newsletter.

For any of these trails to come to reality, it is dependent on a countless number of entities to come together and work towards their common goals. In the PRATT group there are a number of private companies involved, and working together with people from two different municipalities, the Salt Lake County government body, The Utah Transit Authority, Utah Department of Transportation, and that is just to name a few. All of these groups and organizations have different motives and ideas about the future of the trail. Some of them will assume years of responsibility in the future maintenance and care for the trail.

I don't think there are more important roles than those observing citizens who get involved with the design, planning, construction, and upkeep of the trail. Urban trail projects especially require immeasurable amounts of volunteer hours by people that care about the place in which they live.

Urban trails are certainly complicated. They are socially characteristic of both parks and streets. I began this study with the intention of gaining a better understanding for what make great enjoyable public spaces. I have gained that, as well as a feeling of influence and involvement in the future outcome of my urban habitat. I feel drawn to the vision of an extensive urban trail system for the potential I can see it has to connect and populate significant places in the city that have been fragmented by the heavy use of the personal automobile.

Works Cited

Cowan, Robert. The Dictionary of Urbanism. Tisbury: Streetwise Press, 2005.

Duke, Staci. "Residents weigh in on Jordan River plans." South Salt Lake Journal 25 September 2008: 1.

Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1993.

Mountainland Association - About the Wasatch Loop Trail. 5 12 2008 .

Salt Lake County. "Parley's Creek Corridor Master Plan." Master Plan. 2004.

Santa Cruz County - Friends of the Rail Trail. 25 11 2008 .

Youngberg, Florence C. Parley's Hollow - gateway to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Scottsdale: Agreka Books, 1988.

Labels: Essay, Salt Lake City, School, Urbanism, Utah

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

OOO DUCKS!

In San Diego the night before the 2008 Holiday Bowl, happily for these guys the Oregon Ducks beat the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Labels: Video

Monday, January 05, 2009

The Great American Streetcar Conspiracy

As a city dweller I am most frustrated with the amount of options I have for getting around town. The automobile is an expensive luxury that saves a commuter a lot of time in the day. What is frustrating about The Great American Streetcar Conspiracy is that whole working systems were bought out and obliterated. These were good transportation options and rightfully belonged to the public. And, it seems that the public had little to say at the time about the future transportation systems of their cities.

Many cities at that time were in the fairly early stages of development. The outcome of this doing is that many of our cities today have only one viable and efficient way of getting to the destinations of the city, and that is a personal automobile. This is especially apparent in cities in the Western U.S. where development is mostly due to the automobile. Recently many places are making efforts for some kind of rail system, which I suppose is the most frustrating thing about this story, because today society feels they have the task of reinstalling these kinds of systems.

I'm not sure how much I can recognize a blatant conspiracy to destroy quality of life. The people and companies involved are motivated only by making a lot of money. I don't think that a desirable city was on the agenda for the people involved in National City Lines, they were trying to be profitable. So, I think it is in part the product of a society that places such a great value on money, and making lots of it.

Our systems don't always invite for the best possible solution to our problems because we are many times more interested in creating economic wealth. The amount of jobs and money generated around the automobile has been an immeasurable influence on many decisions and practices over the past century. And the money is intertwined into a great many aspects of the economy; the actual production, road construction, the oil business, the auto as a tool for exporting goods, drive-thru restaurants, insurance companies, impacts on health care, this list could go on and on.

Overall I think that millions and millions of people in this country have a significantly better life due to the automobile, but it has also created a society with too much dependence on it. The cultural impacts of the automobile as well are immeasurable. The freedom that we get from cars has certainly had an impact on the ways we view ourselves and the world we live in. It seems that there is a large amount of pride and individuality invested in our cars. I think that appeal of the automobile slowly became more and more desirable than that of the trolley systems. What was not realized was the amount of congestion that would be caused by the production of millions of automobiles. Cars are rooted forever it seems into American life.

However the personal automobile is less and less ideal in cities with growing concentrations in the millions. The automobile has caused challenges, present and future, for cities as they have grown from small to large, or large to larger in population, while implementing designs that influence a lifestlye that is focused on the automobile.

Labels: School, Urbanism

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Trolley Square

Just turned 100 years old in 2008, there no doubt that an embodied story lies within the buildings and structures contained in the block known as Trolley Square. Located to the south-east of Salt Lake City's downtown, it is included on the National Register of Historic Places in Utah. The place preserves some history that Salt Lake residents enjoy, though this appreciation is a fairly recent development. It has evolved into a place immersed in much public feeling.

A Witness of the Past

The land originally served as a fair grounds type of public gathering place for the earliest settlers of Salt Lake City in the late 1800's and into the 1900's. In a time before the automobile dominated our landscape, the new and exciting idea of trolley driven public transportation system was being planned and implemented. In 1908 a New York railroad tycoon named E.H. Harriman spent 3.5 million dollars to build the barns for trolleys on the world's first electric transit system. (Bagley, 2001) Two years later Trolley Square became the site where the Utah Light and Rail Company would house and care for more than 140 trolleys in a city wide system that transported people to and from all the neighborhoods, shopping centers and attractions of the young city. Trolley Square, literally and figuratively, exerted mass amounts of energy into the city, until 1945 when the system was suddenly shut down.

The site then became a large storage facility for city buses as it collected many tires, vehicles, and other junk yard qualities for more than 20 years.

In 1972 the trolley barns were cleaned up and converted into the shopping center and social club place that is today. (Trolley Square: A brief history, 2007) It was one of the first adaptive reuse sites in the country.

The water tower on the premise is a Salt Lake City icon. It once served as 50,000 gallon emergency supply of water for the Utah Light and Rail Company.

It has a belonging to its place in the surroundings simply because it has been there longer than most of the residents have been alive. The tower is highly cherished by most in the area. Today it is covered in red and blue neon lights and has Trolley Square lit up across the tank. It operates as weather beacon by local weather people at KSL; solid red for snow, flashing red for rain, flashing blue for cloudy, and solid blue for clear. (KSL, 2007)

A Full Bodied Presence

When spending time in Trolley Square today it is hard to imagine what the buildings early life was like. In its current form, the layout defines many smaller spaces while inviting you into other ones. On the outside the trees and storefronts lead us through the connected brick walkways. The interior walls are slightly maze like. Some of the shops in the center building can provide a browsers corridor through to the next building, having entrances on opposite ends of the shop space. All of this contributes to a feeling that you are in a much smaller enclosed area. The overall size is fairly large, so it feels smaller than it really is.

Though much of the playfulness in design was an addition coming with the renovation, and change of use, it is not at all original to the building design. However, it does cater to the new and current use of the building well. I like that many elements have been left to hint and haunt us about the building's history. One example being the barn numbers hanging high in the loft part of the structure.

The buildings were designed with the intended use of storing, repairing and maintaining trolley cars. So in that I recognize this place as beginning as a utilitarian use in its nature. The buildings I think a very practical while expressing some style. Possibly that played a role is keeping it safe from demolition for this long. It is possible that because of the wealthy E.H. Harriman interest in the project, and because government was providing some funding and man-power to the trolley system, and because it was viewed as a cutting edge project by most the public, I think that those kind of factors could have played a role in appearance. I think city residents expected to see a structure of some sort of prestige or uniqueness. The building doesn't seem incredibly elaborate to me but it is unique, and I’m not sure how much its history plays a role in that. I try to consider the way it would have appeared with the 1908 setting and surroundings and how different it must have been from the way we know it today.

I try to visualize the working of this facility in its original state. I imagine that the place then might be what I can relate to a large auto garage repair shop. The layout of the site seems very awkward to me. The south buildings sit very close together creating an alleyway between the current parking areas. I assume that this has much to do with the costs and the mechanics of the whole system, which probably dictated the placement of the buildings.

That is not to infer that there was not any concern for creating the visual pleasing structures that they are. From any of the multiple angles you can experience, being within the space draws a lot of curiosity to explore in people.

From the interior it is very easy to see why they are called barns. The metal beams direct energy upwards towards the ceiling point. Original bricks and columns are exposed on many walls and the color is lighter and has orange to pink values, different from the brick on the exterior. The floors of the inside are made of concrete that has been finished with a unique semi-glossy finish that is subtle with color and a wavy pattern.

On the exterior the decorative roof line is its most prominent feature. While at the same time it reflects obvious industrial roots, both in its presence and of its nature. I suspect that all the rough black metal ornamentation is inspired by an original theme of the building.

The buildings have a melded style. It is heavily influenced by factories and warehouses of the early 1900's, but it is has a definite Spanish/Mexican mission style structure. In that regards it could be a representation of the convergence of different cultures that happened at this place and that time.

Rhythmically placed all around the building's exterior are what is left of a Utah Light and Rail Company logos that again remind us what the building once was.

It echoes with many other different patterns. Some that are original to the building and some that have been later adapted to its changed use. Arches repeat themselves down the entire fronts and backs of the buildings, once they were barn doors, now they are windows and doors into the shops.

The building is composed of a rough and worn brick that contributes to the rugged aura. The brick is vibrant terracotta red on the exterior. I suspect some modern finishing work was done to achieve the look. I have read that the color of the building at one time was a painted yellow (Trolley Square: A brief history, 2007), though I could not determine if that was in the original appearance.

The landscape architecture around the building are what give the center a cozy and comfortable feel. There are numerous fountains, benches and trees along the brick walkway. The black metal railings match the electrical ornaments and window casings on the building.

And More to Come

When Trolley Square was converted into retail use, in the 1970's the enclosed mall with a parking lot was the style in which America was building its shopping center. I think that it has served this city well. Today it is one of the most frequently visited stops for visitors in the city. The old buildings are getting older, and the whole center has shown signs of deterioration. Upgrades and improvements are definitely needed, and change is on the horizon.

Trolley Square has already began to undergo yet another transformation. A Portland, Oregon company that owns the land and shopping center has recently announced multi-million dollar plans to renovate the grounds and interior, as well as build new retail structures on the west and north-east parking areas. A Whole Foods Market will likely relocate its 400 South location one block away to Trolley Square, and other retailers will be added. (Nii, 2007) From what I can tell I think the new plan for a plaza type space will be a good addition. This space also ties into the existing public movement space shown in dark red. My concern is that the character and history of the existing structures will fall back into the shadows created by the new buildings.

I envision Trolley Square continuing a journey that retells the history of the place, by circling around to become more like the public space that the original settlers used it for, while drawing patrons from the nearby modern day transit station that bears the name Trolley station. I hope that great care is taken in preserving history without putting it inside a glass case. I appreciate that others before me have preserved all of it for me, not just look at, but to experience living in. Ten years from now I would like to enter into a historic mini city center that is alive with people and their things, and I want able to interact with all of it.

Works Cited

Bagley, W. (2001, December 9). The Salt Lake Tribune , p. http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/history_matters/120901.html.

KSL. (2007). Weather Tower at Trolley Square. pp. http://web.ksl.com/TV/content/weather/p-tower.htm.

Nii, J. K. (2007, April 7). Trolley Square launching renovation. Deseret News , p. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_/ai_n19019393.

Trolley Square: A brief history. (2007, February 13). The Salt Lake Tribune , p. http://www.sltrib.com/ci_5216391.

Labels: Architecture, History, Places in Utah, Salt Lake City, School, Utah