December 5, 2023

The educational center should embody and showcase the diverse elements of the canyon, acting as a microcosm of the experience of traveling through the area. The building forms are extruded from the topography and buried in the hillside.

Designing a dementia care center in Goa, India, presents a unique challenge due to the increasing prevalence of dementia in India, particularly in rural areas. This project aims to create a people-centered environment that promotes physical, emotional, social and spiritual well-being for patients with dementia. Incorporating natural light is a primary focus to aid healing and wayfinding. The design draws inspiration from traditional Indian architectural elements such as courtyards, patios, jalis and verandahs. The campus is designed as a hierarchy of social spaces, including multiple courtyards with carrying levels of visual access to aid in wayfinding and promote social engagement.

The Great Salt Lake has been in ecological decline for decades, neglected and dishonored, especially compared to the Wasatch Mountains towering above its shores. It is a symbol of environmental neglect, forgotten dreams and future opportunity. We are at a tipping point where the future of the lake (and of the whole region) stands in balance. As such, Architecture of Abandonment proposes a design for a new visitor center capable of fostering positive human engagement with the lake in the timeline where we are able to preserve it — or serve as a warning or memorial, a symbol of the consequences of ecological collapse if the Great Salt Lake were to disappear.

The Post District is a 13-acre site spanning one and a half city blocks in Downtown Salt Lake City. Located along the main entrance and exit boulevards to the city, this development is the next great expansion piece of downtown. It will transform a dormant, vacant, overlooked and forgotten portion of the city into an exceptional urban neighborhood.

Park City draws visitors throughout the year for its world-class skiing, natural setting, abundant summer activities and authentic small-town charm. The Main Street historic district becomes the epicenter of the Sundance Film Festival and numerous community-focused markets and celebrations. The streetscape improvements made to the city center elevate the exterior spaces to support these broad-ranging activities while remaining compatible with the eclectic nature of the architecture on Main Street and the history of the community as a mining town turned outdoor recreation tourism hub.

The approach to the design was to create a “base camp” for the community — a place to relax, sleep, eat, climb, skate and shop for outdoor gear and accessories and connect the buildings together in a cohesive way while still maintaining the integrity and character of its history.

The original Temple had seen several renovations and additions throughout its history. As a result, many of the original details of this neo-classical, colonial revival building were hidden, missing or damaged. The goal became restoring and repairing original details where possible and reimagining original intent and function where necessary.

The Salt Lake County Library at Daybreak is a new public project located in a transit-oriented, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use community. The library is an anchor in the new urbanist Daybreak development that promotes local community values, prioritizes people and activates streets while still accommodating vehicular transportation.

I will admit here and now that I really used to get bothered by technical staff not providing the information I requested from them. And I complained. Then some smarter-than-me people made suggestions about how to get what I needed, like talking in-person or over the phone to the person — almost interviewing him/her — to get what I needed. Right off the bat, I realized that 99% of the time, the person wanted to help me but felt overwhelmed by my request since my request competed with billable deadlines or marketing simply wasn’t a typical task and it took longer to switch gears into “marketing mode.” Understanding the “other side of the coin” made me want to find easier ways for technical staff to be involved.

Architecture has been a part of Roger Jackson’s entire life, but he didn’t make the decision to go ‘all in’ until he was in his early 20s. His Dad was an architect and he started in civil engineering. At some point, there was a natural transition to move to a career that would capture both his mathematical and artistic talents. He graduated from the University of Utah School of Architecture in 1984. He landed at FFKR Architects soon after and has been there ever since.