SALT LAKE CITY — For months, those walking through downtown Salt Lake City have watched as the Astra Tower continues to soar towards the sky as the tallest building in Utah.
For some, the building is taking a vision for the future to a whole new level.
“Truly a transformative project for our city,” said architect Emir Tursic at a ceremony Tuesday to officially open the building.
A graduate of the University of Utah and now partner at HKS Architects, the group that designed Astra Tower, Tursic is living his own dream.
“Never imagined when I graduated from the U twenty-something years ago that I would have the opportunity to work on landmark projects like this in Salt Lake City,” he said.
Drone video below shows off features of Utah's new tallest building:
The team set out seven years ago to build the new skyscraper. Their main goal was to create what they describe as a sustainable, urban community unlike any other. Astra Tower features 372 units plus two floors of exclusive penthouses and several amenities for residents.
Topping it off is a 4,000 square foot rooftop terrace the whole community can enjoy as it enhances Salt Lake City’s skyline.
“If you look at the building, it actually, it steps down to the existing context and the future buildings here,” explained Tursic.
Incredibly, the team that designed Astra Tower did not set out to create the tallest building in the state.
“It actually was not [the plan]. It was never the intention to be the tallest building in Utah,” Tursic claimed.
But, in order to meet sustainability standards, the building's vision continued to level up.
“Because of our limited footprint and everything that a project to this magnitude requires by default, we ended up being the tallest building,” he added.
Astra Tower now measures 451 feet tall, surpassing the Wells Fargo Center by 29 feet to become the city's new skyline champion.
