Astra Tower by HKS Rises as Utah's Tallest Building with Air-Purifying Facade

Key facts

• Astra Tower is a 41-story residential building in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the tallest building in the state.
• Kensington Investment Company CEO Ed Lewis commissioned HKS to design the tower.
• The project team includes Thornton Tomasetti (structural engineer), Steel Encounters (glass/curtain wall), and Willis Construction (GFRC panels and precast).
• The building is divided into three massings: a low-rise parking podium with a resident urban park, a mid-section with stone cladding and glass window-wall, and a high-rise roof terrace with an LED air quality beacon.
• The primary facade material is white GFRC, chosen for performance, weight, and a glimmer reminiscent of the Great Salt Lake and mountain snow.
• A performance-based design with peer-reviewed studies allowed a single lateral system instead of two, permitting 3 percent sway in a high seismic risk area.
• The window envelope uses mid-iron glass with a roughly 67 percent visibility ratio; operable windows can reduce HVAC costs by up to 25 percent.
• A hospital-grade filtration system ducts air to each unit and exhausts it vertically at the top; the roof acts as the building's lungs with air quality indicator lights and clean air vents.
• Extensive wind tunnel studies ensured the tower does not impede pedestrians at street level.
• HKS office director and partner Emir Tursic said the building may release cleaner air than it takes in on bad inversion days, aspirationally acting as a mini city purifier.