Artspace Commons overcame all odds when it was completed in 2010 -- the height of the economic recession.
Today, the project anchors Artspace's presence in Salt Lake City's Granary District and is joined by two other Artspace projects: Solar Gardens and Greenery. When Artspace first purchased the site, it was a designated Brownfield (a former contaminated industrial site). Fortunately, we were able to clean up the site through the Utah Voluntary Clean Up program. Now stands a Gold LEED certified project with 102 affordable apartments and 50,000 square feet of commercial space. This project includes a TON of cool environmentally sustainable features:
- Solar photovoltaic window awnings that generates 25 kilowatts of electricity annually.
- Solar hot water system that heats all the culinary water in the summer and also provides some of the space heating in winter.
- Highly efficient insulation.
- White roof and cement parking lot to reflect heat and reduce urban heat island effect.
- Exterior lighting designed to reduce light pollution by not facing the sky or bleeding off site.
- Water use reduction through plumbing fixtures and shut offs that use less than 40% of baseline established by USGBC.
- Deck flooring made from recycled tires.
- Local and recycled materials used.
- Marmoleum floors (a natural product made from renewable resources: linseed oil, wood flour, pine rosin, natural pigments and a jute backing).
We're lucky that the sustainable building has attracted several of Utah's nonprofits with environmentally-concious missions, making the project a beacon of the best ecological standards.
