Standing tall: With a new skyscraper at No. 1, see how Salt Lake City’s highest high-rises stack up

Salt Lake City’s dynamic downtown skyline will wrap up 2024 at a new pinnacle.

Astra Tower, the glitzy apartment complex now completed at 200 South and State Street, rises 450 feet — officially outreaching the city’s previous and longtime tallest building, the 422-foot Wells Fargo Center, two blocks away on Main Street.

Also landing among the highest high-rises in Utah’s capital this year is The Worthington, 275 S. 200 East, another luxury apartment tower. Like Astra, this residential complex also comes from an out-of-state developer, marking a departure for a height list long dominated by locals, including the state’s largest faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The two newbies are also all about attractive living spaces after decades of the city’s tallest towers being offices. That reflects urban core’s dramatic population boom in recent years and a flurry of new apartment building across the Wasatch Front, as well as a pandemic-induced pinch in office demand and a lending slowdown as many employees continue to work from home.

Here’s a look at Salt Lake City’s current top 10:

1. Astra Tower

89 E. 200 South — 450 feet / 41 floors

The tallest tower ever built in Utah replaced a fast-food joint and surface parking on 200 South with 377 luxury apartments going vertical, designed by well-known HKS Architects and developed in the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic by Jacobsen Construction and Kensington Investment Co., based in Boston.

Its high-end studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom dwellings are pitched to “jet-setters, go-getters and visionaries” lured by Utah’s outdoor recreation and a focus on wellness, offering three amenity decks, including a pool on the 23rd floor and an entertainment terrace on its top levels.

The new skyscraper also hits LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold sustainability standards, with bio-friendly designs and building materials as well as a system for filtering pollution and returning clean air back to the city’s skyline.

2. Wells Fargo Center

299 S. Main — 422 feet / 26 floors

This angular, metallic and postmodern-style behemoth — also designed by HKS — was known as American Stores Tower when it went up in 1998 and reigned as the city’s tallest tower until the day Astra placed its top beams in October 2023.

The distinct glass and salt-and-pepper paneled tower has 13 elevators, two helipads and backs onto Gallivan Center, a popular gathering space featuring another of the city’s top 10 towers: One Utah Center.

Wells Fargo Center has hosted several high-profile corporate headquarters through the years. Sinclair Broadcast Group’s KUTV currently runs street-level studios on its ground floor.

3. Church Office Building

50 E. North Temple — 420 feet / 28 floors

This headquarters to the global faith located on North Temple is one of several symbols, of course, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ presence downtown.

Completed in 1972, it was designed by George Cannon Young, one of 32 children born to polygamous Latter-day Saint apostle George Q. Cannon, and its exterior used granite from the same quarry as the Salt Lake Temple.

Though it stood as the state’s tallest for many years, it’s a myth that the city ever had rules against building anything higher than the offices for the state’s predominant faith.

4. 95 State at City Creek

95 S. State — 395 feet / 25 floors

This office building is also a symbol, in this case of the growing presence of downtown’s City Creek Center, the church-owned shopping, office and residential center spread over two blocks straddling Main Street.

Developers with the church’s real estate subsidiaries built and opened this bluish, glass-clad commercial tower known as 95 State in 2022 about a decade after City Creek, though its name now includes the mall and it is linked to the center via a pedestrian tunnel.

The skyscraper has smoothed corners, meets top green-building standards and features retail outlets, eateries and a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse on its ground floor.

5. 111 South Main

111 S. Main — 387 feet / 23 floors

This is also high-end church-owned office tower, opened in 2016, but with its own world-class architectural feature: It stands above the 2,500-seat George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater.

The high-rise made history by deploying a hat-truss system that props up most of the building’s weight from its roof instead of the ground, which also let 111 Main designers include a 43-foot cantilever extending over the roof of the theater to the south.

Like 95 State, 111 Main features an immense digital display in its high-ceiling lobby. Programmable lights beaming from its upper floors are visible across the valley, akin to Main Street’s Walker Center.

6. 99 West on South Temple

99 W. South Temple — 375 feet / 30 floors

This earth-toned condominium tower also called The Promontory on South Temple went up at the site of the Inn at Temple Square in 2010 as one of the first projects for church-owned City Creek Center.

It has been a key residential piece of the faith’s overall vision for a mixed-use development with the $1.5 billion-plus shopping center to revitalize those blocks around Temple Square.

The brick-facaded building holds 185 high-end condos along with ground-floor retail space and underground parking. The Utah Sports Hall of Fame has a free museum at the base.

7. KeyBank Tower

36 S. State — 351 feet / 26 floors

The blocky cream-colored tower with dark windows was built in 1976, but its history touches on City Creek Center as well, with one of downtown Salt Lake City’s big switcheroos:

The building was originally called Beneficial Life Tower but got renamed KeyBank Tower when an office tower at 50 S. Main with that name was demolished in 2007 to make way for the new shopping center.

What’s now called the KeyBank Tower at City Creek was then remodeled in 2021 into a Class A office building, with KeyBank as a marquee tenant.

8. One Utah Center

201 S. Main — 350 feet / 24 floors

This copper-tinged granite, glass and metal landmark stands above Main Street’s Gallivan Center plaza.

Built by The Boyer Co. in 1991 in a partnership with the city’s Redevelopment Agency, the tower is used for corporate offices, including as headquarters for its owner, The Gardner Group.

The surrounding 3.65-acre urban plaza’s amphitheater, midblock open spaces and ice rink make for a popular downtown gathering spot and concert venue.

9. The Worthington Residences

275 S. 200 East — 335 feet / 31 floors

Like Astra, this earth-toned luxury high-rise apartment building landed on the city’s top 10 tallest towers this year, opening on the east end of the skyline over the summer with a mix of 359 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom dwellings.

The Worthington — built by a partnership of developers led by Convexity Properties, a DRW subsidiary — also boasts a pool, spa, fitness room and smartly decorated communal areas.

Shortly after it opened, some perforated paneling on The Worthington’s parking garage levels began to produce a whistling sound in the wind, loud enough for neighbors to hear. A property manager said the panels have since been removed and new sound-free ones will be installed by year’s end.

10. Beneficial Financial Group Tower

15 W. South Temple — 335 feet / 19 floors

Originally known as the Gateway Tower West, this commercial office tower built in 1998 was also renamed as part of the City Creek Center-KeyBank switch and is now marketed as part of the downtown mall.

Like 111 Main, this tower has a cantilevered design that boosts its seismic safety and, in this case, expanded the footprints of floors six through 19.

The building still holds offices for the church’s longtime insurance company, Beneficial Life.

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