A gracious goose greets visitors to the gift shop below at Tracy Aviary’s new Visitors Center. Photo by Nathan Webster.
by Ann Poore
Architecture & Design Editor
As I started to look around for subjects that could be included in 15 Bytes’ new series of articles on Architecture & Design, the makeover at Tracy Aviary was near the top of my list. There was the Sugar House Hole, but that was being filled. And City Creek is next month, with Robert Bliss weighing in, that’ll be a treat. And we hope others in the field will come forward with their Utah hits and misses, past and present, to share with our readers. But for our very first column a lot of synchronicities made the new Aviary Visitors Center the only choice.
It’s been nearly a year since Liberty Park reopened after that nasty 2010 oil spill. And the image of that incredible mess and sea of orange vests has been nearly wiped clean for me by the stunning new makeover recently completed by Big D Construction and ajc Architects at the Aviary. I mean, I’ve already been back twice since we shot the photographs and I think I’ll buy a membership. I even fed the sun conures – they perch on your arm and share a piece of apple right out of your hand. It costs 3 bucks but it’s magical. And the lead architect on the intriguing new Visitors Center, Nathan Webster, is one of the people who bring us PechaKucha Night that I happened to write about here just last month. So I hit him up for a column.
Look for it in the March edition of 15 Bytes, out next week. In the meantime, here are a couple of snaps taken at the Aviary. And if you have any article ideas for our new section, email me at annpoore@comcast.net.
The new Tracy Aviary as seen from the Liberty Park concession area. Photo by Tristan Shepherd.
Tracy Aviary sign after a recent snow storm. Photo by Paul Svendsen.
A graduate of the University of Utah, Ann Poore is a freelance writer and editor who spent most of her career at The Salt Lake Tribune. She was the 2018 recipient of the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Artist Award in the Literary Arts.
Categories: Architecture & Design | Daily Bytes
Great launch of a new subject area. Kudos to Ann Poore and 15 Bytes!
I couldn’t agree more with Ms. Ann Poore. For a while there, the park was ruined it seemed, but it’s all cleaned up now and though it has always been one of the better features of the city, it has become so much more. A big part of what makes it so special is the revamped Tracy Aviary. The new building is grand, with a stunning sculptural motif that seems to have grown from the same roots as the old growth trees that abound. The new enclosures for the birds are far more open and friendly and the walk ways guide you from feature to feature like an outdoor museum. I for one am anxious to know more about how this came to be and look forward to Ms. Poore’s article in the next edition.
This new architecture and design section will no doubt be a hit in a city so full of subjects.