The Mountain America Credit Union (MACU) corporate headquarters is a 326,000-sq-ft, 11-story office building located just off Interstate 15 in Sandy, Utah. Its fully glazed, highly reflective curtain wall provides views of Cottonwood Canyon and the Wasatch Mountains for tenants and visitors and reflects the landscape and movement of the sky for neighbors and travelers on I-15. The design of the facade causes the building to alter its appearance throughout the day, the week or the season, due in part to its aluminum fins, which are dense at the base and spaced more widely at the top, which helps create more interest along the facade.

The project’s location directly adjacent to I-15 limited the ability of crane operators to hoist loads over the interstate. The team worked with UDOT and the Federal Highway Administration to devise a solution that included decreasing the jib length of the crane on the north side and ensuring that construction materials, debris and dust did not blow onto the busy highway.

In addition to office space, a fitness center, a pedestrian plaza, surface parking and an outdoor recreation area, the facility includes an adjoining six-level parking structure that accommodates more than 1,700 vehicles. The garage is shared between MACU and the Hale Centre Theatre, which required three levels of parking to be complete by December 2017 for the theater’s grand opening. However, the entire parking structure wasn’t scheduled for completion until summer 2018.

The team resequenced the work on the garage to open the first three levels early while finishing the three upper levels in time for the MACU opening. This required a highly coordinated effort with the city of Sandy to ensure that all life-safety measures were in place.

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