About The Structure
Designed by the internationally-acclaimed architects at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, this recently-completed Okland Construction project stands as an energizing high-end addition to the downtown Salt Lake City skyline. This tower expands the existing footprint of its anchor tenant, Goldman Sachs, bringing thousands of additional jobs and visitors to the City Creek Center area.
This 24 story office tower makes a striking impression from top to bottom, inside and out, a dream for any Utah commercial photographer. At street level, the expansive glass-encased lobby opens to an interior clad with travertine and warm eucalyptus, offering a stunning contrast to the high-quality Swiss quartzite floors. From anywhere in the building, tremendous 9-foot floor-to-ceiling windows give visitors and employees an uninterrupted view of the bustling streets beyond.
Over 450,000 square feet of offices seems to float weightlessly above the lobby without the use of visible columns, an astounding visual trick facilitated by the building's iconic hat-truss construction. Almost 40 feet of the structure overhangs the neighboring Eccles Theater – a symbolic nod to the union between business and the arts that defines the personality of downtown Salt Lake City.
This project is anticipated to receive LEED Gold certification, making it just as easy on the environment as it is on the eyes.
Capturing The Structure
I captured this building while driving around downtown Salt Lake City on a cold December night. It's one of my favorite new constructions – I'd taken photos of it before when it still had an Okland Construction crane on the side of it, so you can imagine my delight at seeing it was finally completed. I quickly whipped out my camera and started bracketing long exposures.
The timing couldn't have been better. The sweet spot for stunning bright blue twilights had passed, the darkness helping the interior of the building pop with its ethereal lights.
I was absolutely freezing without my jacket. I'm only skin and bone, so it's always torture when I'm not near a heater or wrapped up in a snuggie. Once the three 10-30 second bracketed photos were done and the shutter of the camera closed, I started feeling the excitement of what I'd just captured. The interior definitely popped and the photographs were very appealing overall.
Personally, I'm very much a fan of big glass windows like these, even for residential homes. It's my weakness. Everything is new, shiny, and fresh. It's just plain fun to look at. There's definitely no other building with this kind of primo style in downtown Salt Lake City.
I've recently reopened these images to rework the edits. In the video (Above) you can quickly see me blend the images together with different exposures to create a base layer for my work. After setting the global adjustments of the base layer, you'll see the challenges faced by commercial photographers, such as removal of litter then complicated removals of street signs and reflections. After taking care of slight color cast issues, I correct the verticals and horizontals. Finally, tweaks to sharpness and other global adjustments wrap up the process.
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