From a distance, the new Baltic Pointe office building rising on the foothills of Draper about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City doesn’t appear much different from others populating Utah’s tech corridor, known as the Silicon Slopes. But up close and inside, its look, feel and particularly the smell of Douglas fir make it noticeably different from traditional steel and concrete constructions. The first mass timber commercial building in Utah, Baltic Pointe is causing a stir among developers and sparking curiosity in the region’s construction and design community.
“We’ve never had so many requests for tours of a building before,” says Liza Hart, senior development manager and vice president for sustainability with Baltic Pointe’s developer, Salt Lake City-based Gardner Group.