University of Utah students submit new design for Japantown

SALT LAKE CITY — University of Utah architecture students have submitted a proposal to rebuild Japantown in Salt Lake City.

It was a semester final project that was made realistic because they actually had a client, which was Japantown.

Professor Diane Kayembe said it wasn’t just an exercise of designing something out of thin air. 

“It’s been, I think, very helpful and almost realistic for them to have a client that eventually will have a project built [and] they can use the student’s ideas to help foster that,” Kayembe said.

The students had to research the area, its significance and history, then offer their drawings and ideas. On top of this, they had to talk with stakeholders.

“Those are the people that will be experiencing the architecture that [the students] design,” Kayembe said. “[Students] also put some of themselves into it to keep that passion and to show the community how excited they are for something like this to come to fruition.”

Kayemebe said the students were very excited about the project along 100 South between the Salt Palace and the Delta Center.

“It’s obviously a two-way street,” Kayembe said. “Providing the students not only with real-world experience in terms of developing a project that could also become something one day. (It’s) not just hypothetical and stays in their portfolio forever.”

They presented their projects to the public at the Japanese Church of Christ and the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple. They hope their ideas will be incorporated into the eventual designs of the area

Tammy Kikuchi is a reporter and anchor for KSL NewsRadio.

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