If one thing stayed the same along the Wasatch Front this year, it was the public’s apparent concern for the way things are changing.
That’s a clear takeaway from Building Salt Lake’s review of our most popular articles of 2024, as ranked by total readership.
We saw our total readership grow by 38 percent compared to 2023, the previous high water mark in the site’s 10-year history.
An increase in output may have helped. We averaged over one story per weekday this year. And we intend to continue expanding our coverage of urban planning and commercial real estate in 2025 to meet a rapidly growing audience.
Half of the most-read stories of this year are also among the top 10 most-read all-time.
We don’t use these metrics to guide coverage. We’ll continue to cover the important policy debates and projects that don’t tend to drive high readership because we’re committed to providing thorough coverage.
Maybe there are some stories here that you or a friend or colleague missed the first time around.
Our readers really, really like transit. So much so that this article about a finalized plan for long-distance rail running through Utah strained our servers close to a breaking point.
It’s unclear what the future will hold under a second Trump administration, one that has already seen the president-elect cozy up to an auto executive. But the latest story on the Federal Railroad Administration’s plan for daily long-distance rail service in Utah caught a lot of attention. READ MORE
Stories about demolitions typically have a lot of interest in Utah (see below). Stories about illegal demolitions have even more. That was the case with the partial demolition of the historic Fifth Ward Meetinghouse, which was slated to be torn down on Easter Sunday this year before a Salt Lake City employee stopped the work, the city intervened and the owner was eventually fined. READ MORE
After the regional chain began closing its doors, the Ogden restaurant Biscuit and Hogs was later accused of not paying its vendors and leases in Idaho, offering clues behind the company’s closure. READ MORE
Another in the historic demolition series. Readers were particularly interested in the latest example of the LDS Church demolishing its own history. First, it attempted to sell its Wells Ward chapel with a condition that the buyer tear down the building. Then, apparently finding no buyer, the church moved earlier this year to tear the building down itself. READ MORE
We filed a public records request with the state agency that could have issued necessary approvals for tearing down the Fifth Ward. The documents we received showed that the developer-owner hired a contractor to tear down the entire building, sidestepping the city’s approval process for demolishing historic structures in the process. READ MORE
A gate that was quietly installed near Main Street Plaza ended up being a shift in a years-long policy around public access to what was once a portion of Main Street near the heart of Downtown.
As part of its ongoing work to retrofit the Salt Lake Temple, the church earlier this year installed a new gate that will block the public from the plaza in front of the historic building during certain hours. READ MORE
Utah’s wealthiest family last year launched one of the country’s most promising bids to bring Major League Baseball to Salt Lake City. Soon after, it began buying up property near its chosen site for a west side stadium.
It successfully lobbied the Utah Legislature to pass a nearly $1 billion taxpayer subsidy to help build the stadium, along with the requirement that Salt Lake City work with the Miller Group on new zoning rules for the stadium district. Among the company’s requests? Permission to build up to 400-foot high buildings on the west side. The City Council approved the request in a final vote earlier this month. READ MORE
In a show of distress for some multifamily in Salt Lake City, The Lusso Apartments, at 1025 W. North Temple, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May.
The market-rate project in the Fairpark neighborhood is part of the North Temple transit corridor, a Redevelopment Agency project area, and an Opportunity Zone, which made it one of the city’s most rapidly developing areas. READ MORE
After keeping its plans for a new hospital near the center of Salt Lake City close to its vest, Intermountain Health shared its vision for the new urban hospital near 700 S. State St. in June. The company is seeking to replace its aging LDS Hospital in the Upper Avenues with a modern and more centrally located one on the Sears Block.
The project was one of several major landmark developments approved by the Salt Lake City Council this year. READ MORE
After spending 119 years near the heart of Downtown, 68 of them in a building fronting the Salt Lake Temple, the LDS Church moved to relocate the Utah Woolen Mills in preparation of demolishing the building at 57 W. South Temple.
The church had previously announced its plans to raze the building, saying the 2020 earthquake that rocked the Salt Lake Valley caused irreparable damage. In November, it requested a permit to raze the building. READ MORE
The story was too tragic to be believed. Earlier this year, the owner of The Other Place filed paperwork with the city indicating he had given his approval to a developer who was working to replace the restaurant with new apartments.
Fans of the iconic Greek diner rushed to grab another meal before the restaurant closed, not realizing the closure was dependent on the developer obtaining city approval for the project. The owner, meanwhile, told patrons he wasn’t planning to go anywhere, despite what he told the city. Eventually, the developer dropped their plans, and The Other Place remains open. READ MORE
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