In an era of urban renaissance, downtown developments are challenged to do more with less. In addition to providing high-density, amenity-rich housing, high-rise architects must minimize the carbon footprint of their projects while also designing for resiliency.

“Air quality is the threat that affects us [in Salt Lake City]—we do whatever we can to reduce the carbon footprint,”

Kensington Tower, the 600,000 SF, 40-story residential building currently in design that will be located at the corner of State Street and 200 South.

March’s earthquake reinforced this idea of sustainability, building upon a concept that HKS was already exploring with Kensington Tower, namely Performance-based Design. “We are doing site-specific seismic design instead of following prescriptive code requirements. We’re looking at the soil that the building will be on and designing to a maximum credible earthquake and customizing the structural design to meet that.”

“Air quality is the threat that affects us [in Salt Lake City]—we do whatever we can to reduce the carbon footprint,” he says concerning the issue of sustainable energy and resource-use that comes from higher densities achieved by building vertically.