The party included a photo booth, disco tunes and even dino nuggets. And it happened at one of Salt Lake City’s roundabouts.

Revelers were celebrating the arrival of Kosmo the Kosmoceratops, a massive metal sculpture created by Garth Franklin and Alec Gonos, to the intersection of 1000 West and 700 South.

West-siders, like Linda Miller, had been working alongside city officials and Franklin to move the statement sculpture to the Poplar Grove neighborhood for over a year. Kosmo had been evicted from his previous home on the southeast corner of 500 West and 700 South and needed a new place.

“There is the thought that the west side doesn’t get as much attention as the east side, and I believe it’s true to some extent,” said Miller, who has lived in Poplar Grove for over 40 years. “But to have the traffic circle for safety and Kosmo for an art piece shows that we are getting a little more attention from the city, and I really feel good about that.”

The dinosaur that the piece depicts is a Utah original, first discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. (Formal name: Kosmoceratops richardsoni.)

The 20-foot steel Kosmo also features parts salvaged from old buildings in the Granary District, where Franklin’s workshop and his other large-scale creation, Hoodah, are. The dinosaur now stands on a traffic circle installed in 2024 to slow down cars. The intersection also features raised sidewalks, improved lighting and benches.

The dinosaur’s new neighbors are happy to have him. Miller was excited about having a distinctive sculpture to represent the area. Poplar Grove Community Council Chair Daniel Tu’utau said the dinosaur’s move and subsequent late-July party can spark neighborhood pride and deeper community involvement.

“When you have good things happening in your neighborhood, you feel better about your neighborhood,” Tu’utau said. “You feel more inclined to go out and do good things in the neighborhood as well.”

Kosmo isn’t the only new arrival to Poplar Grove this summer, either. A new mural displaying a litany of birds — including a peacock, a symbol of the area — and a thin strip of blue that mirrors the Jordan River’s route through the neighborhood was added to the western wall of the police precinct at 1040 W. 700 South in June.

“How bright and vibrant it is was really something that I loved. That it kind of pops on that wall,” artist and Poplar Grove resident Kendyl Schofield said. “And that it’s something that really you only get to interact with as you’re using [the Jordan River Trail].”

Schofield and a team of her neighbors worked on the design and a group of volunteers helped bring it to life. The piece is nearly done, she said; one bird’s wing needs a touchup and a metal sign describing the mural will be installed.

A new art installation on the 400 South Viaduct, called Strut and featuring 2,000 feet of colorful fence, links Poplar Grove and downtown and debuted in late May.

Kosmo, unlike the mural or Strut, might not stay in the neighborhood forever. Franklin has expressed interest in moving him back to the Granary once another suitable traffic circle is built there.

At that point, Tu’utau and the rest of the community council will be hoping to get a new statue — perhaps another homage to the peacocks that roam the neighborhood’s streets. Miller likened the future switch to how 9th and 9th’s whale, formally known as Out of the Blue, gets new paint jobs every so often.

“I’m glad we will get Kosmo for a few years,” Miller said. “It’ll be like the whale that gets to change its colors. We get to change the art piece.”