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When I moved to the Salt Lake Valley four years ago I noticed, as many visitors do from the East Coast, that Salt Lake is an exceptionally well manicured place.  This, of course, makes the area an attractive, comfortable place to live.  However, being accustomed to seeing factories, trains, and various modes of infrastructure intersecting, sometimes presumptuously, with homes and businesses, I wondered where all that stuff was kept in Utah.  I discovered a path through the infrastructure I was seeking and an invigorating architectural experience by commuting on Trax.

From Sandy to Salt Lake, one can commute by car without getting a sense of the industry and infrastructure that support us here in the valley.  The daily experience of the built environment for such a commuter is characterized by applied gentility, decoration and order.  For that reason, the raw and elemental, sometimes improvisational, construction witnessed from Salt Lake/Sandy line of Trax is so refreshing.

From the train window south of 1300 South we witness elegantly simple architectural solutions driven by pure economy:

Materials allowed to weather, without persistent treatment, revealing the nature of their composition:

The use of color driven by the function of safety and warning, similar to the function of color in nature:

History, represented without demolition or romantic renovation:

The serendipitous nature of train travel is such that everything you see out the window happens to occur at the moment you pass—a philosophical notion, hard to imagine when you are too busy behind the wheel, or cursing the driver that cut you off.

The business end of architecture in The Salt Lake Valley, as experienced by Trax, complements the refined character of the suburban neighborhoods in the valley.  Both environments support each other in terms of use and architectural quality.