2025 Mountain States Best Projects
Award of Merit, Cultural/Worship: Deseret Peak Utah Temple
Deseret Peak Utah Temple
Tooele, Utah
Award of Merit
Submitted by Okland Construction
Owner Special Project Department, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Lead Design Firm FFKR Architects
General Contractor Okland Construction
Civil Engineer CRS Engineers (Horrocks)
Structural Engineer ARW Engineers
MEP Engineer Heath Engineering
Subcontractors Taylor Electric; Palmer Christiansen
The exterior of this three-story, 72,000-sq-ft steel and concrete structure is clad with a precast stone product made from a dolomite aggregate, while windows feature locally designed and fabricated art glass. Interiors include extensive carved stone and millwork as well as decorative painting.
Situated on a 15.5-acre site, the temple’s scope of work also included a 20,000-sq-ft meeting house and a 1,200-sq-ft maintenance building. Although the project officially broke ground in May 2021, permitting issues prevented work from starting until the end of August.
Shortly after construction began, the design team added a revised collapsible soils mitigation plan, which required a membrane system under the entire building’s footprint that would collect any migrant or unintended moisture from entering subterranean soil. This delayed underground and slab on grade efforts.
To mitigate those impacts, the team placed concrete for the temple’s upper floors before the slab on grade. Toward the end of construction, a last minute program change required a full renovation to an already completed section of the building.
Despite these challenges, the team delivered the temple one month ahead of schedule.
