HKS tops Utah's tallest skyscraper with lights that indicate urban air quality
Architecture studio HKS has completed a 41-storey residential skyscraper in Salt Lake City, which is now the tallest building in Utah and contains an LED crown that displays current levels of air pollution.
The building is located in downtown Salt Lake City and works to "help protect the community by informing them of good or bad air quality in the surrounding area", according to HKS principal Dr Tommy Zakrzewski.
Astra Tower is made up of several interconnected volumes covered in glass-fibre-reinforced concrete (GFRC) and glass. One section of the building rises to 41 storeys, while the other is shorter and is covered in two outdoor terraces that serve as amenities.
The building is 451 feet tall (137.5 metres), beating out the former tallest building in Utah, the Wells Fargo Center designed by SOM, which topped out at 422 feet (128.6 metres).
The top of Astra Tower is an open terrace, which is illuminated by LED lights.
Sensors at the top of the building measure outdoor air, and then, based on data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shift the tones from white to purple to indicate the level of outdoor pollution.
The studio specifically focused on air quality for the building, both for residents and the surrounding city. The choice was informed in part by other local buildings that use exterior lighting to signal weather forecasts, such as the Walker Center next door.
"Instead of just serving people that are living here, the intent was to serve or educate a larger community," HKS Salt Lake City office director Emir Tursic told Dezeen. "Astra Tower is now the tallest building in the state of Utah, so we wanted to take advantage of its prominence."
"We have two or three other buildings that tend to use their exterior lighting for weather forecasts, so we were following that local example. But rather than focusing on the weather forecast, we wanted to focus on the air quality."
The choice was further informed by Salt Lake City's "bowl-like terrain", which creates temperature inversions. During a temperature inversion, cold air is trapped underneath a layer of warm air, and air pollutants can't escape.
Due to this geographic anomaly and its coupling with standard urban pollutants such as exhaust, the city is ranked ninth out of 25 for most polluted cities in the US, according to the 2025 State of Air Report by the American Lung Association.
"I had friends when they were pregnant, they would actually leave Salt Lake City on bad days and spend the weekend in the mountains," said Tursic.
The building is also integrated with an air filtration system that is "above and beyond code" that pumps higher-quality air into each residential unit, according to the studio.
It also contains operable windows for inhabitants, and other sustainable strategies such as 35 per cent water use reduction to create "a vertical community that focuses on wellness and active lifestyle".
According to HKS, the exhaust from the building is also "cleaner", which means the building "passively releases cleaner air back into the city".
"As the air is circulated through the building and interacts with various environments and healthy material selections, the exhaust coming out of the building is essentially cleaner than the air entering the building," said Zakrzewski.
Ultimately, the studio sought to create a resilient building that is representative of Salt Lake City.
"We really wanted to design a building that reflects the beautiful, natural surroundings of Salt Lake City," said Tursic. "We were trying to think – how do we make it as resilient as possible and as responsible as possible?"
"Because obviously, when you build a building of this scale, we have to do more with less, and be very responsible with how we use the resources."
HKS is involved in the design of one of three casinos coming to New York City and is also working on a skyscraper in Austin.
The photography is by Jason O'Rear courtesy of HKS.
Project credits:
Owner: Kensington Investment Co.
Lead design firm: HKS
Interiors: ROAM Interior Design
General contractor: Jacobsen Construction
Civil engineer: Great Basin Engineering
Structural engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
MEP engineer: Archer Mechanical
Electrical engineer: Hunt Electric
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