Project Profile: Green Grows in Urban Salt Lake City
Downtown living in Salt Lake City has never looked like this before.
National
Wood Products supplied the GreenT hardwood plywood that was
used for kitchen cabinetry at City Creek Center in Salt Lake
City.Richards Court, one of two condominium projects at City Creek Center in Salt Lake City, overlooks historic Temple Square and features GreenT hardwood plywood in its cabinetry.
Kitchens in The Regent offer a modern look with GreenT hardwood plywood with cherry veneer.
City Creek Center is a new, sustainably designed urban community of residences, offices and retail stores that will rise over the next two years on approximately 20 acres across three blocks in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City. The community is a LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED ND) pilot project, one of 60 in the country selected to participate in a focus group that is helping the U.S. Green Building Council finalize this new certification process.
The most recent phase of the project included construction of two high-rise condominiums, The Regent and Richard Court, that feature cabinetry made with Timber Products’ GreenT materials. The Regent stands 20-stories tall in the heart of downtown and features views of the Wasatch and Oquirrh Mountains as well as the surrounding cityscape. Richards Court overlooks historic Temple Square and is walking distance to all the shops, hotels, restaurants and entertainment spaces that define urban living.
The distributor, National Wood Products, supplied the certified materials and worked with local cabinet shops to meet the project’s green building objectives.
“This project has been a great learning experience for everyone,” said Todd Hainsworth at National Wood Products. “Our customers were trying to earn LEED points, and we relied heavily on Timber Products for the right FSC certified materials to meet the requirements. The panels needed to have no added urea formaldehyde (NAUF ), so working with an expert source made my job easier.”
Hainsworth estimates that between 3,000 and 5,000 GreenT panels were ordered for the cabinetry. The mix included white melamine particleboard core, and hardwood plywood panels with walnut and cherry veneers. “The products used up to this point have been common kitchen selections, but as the project’s commercial activity ramps up we’ll see more unique species that will be used for trim, moldings and wall panels,” said Hainsworth.
Above all else, Hainsworth thinks that City Creek Center, which is due for completion in 2012, has changed the way his market looks at sustainable building.
“Utah has had some minor green projects before, but City Creek Center is opening everybody’s eyes to sustainability,” he said. “This is a very visible under taking that I think will kick sustainability into high gear in this market. In fact, I just met with a local cabinet manufacturer that wants to star t a green line of cabinets to offer to its customers. They might be realizing that sustainability is not as hard to achieve as they thought.”
For more information on the materials used in the City Creek Center project, contact Timber Products representative Brad Cunningham at 800-547-9520.
