DESERET FIRST CREDIT UNION - OPERATIONS CENTER

Project Confirmation Number:  83930

Entry Category Commercial: 
Commercial: Office Buildings, Warehouses, Hospitals, Big-Box Store, and Strip Malls

Project Location:           
3999 Parkway Blvd.
West Valley City, Utah 84120

Brief description of the project:
The Deseret First Credit Union Operations Center is a 3-story, 60,000 SF office building. The contemporary design utilizes three primary materials including: brick, glass, and aluminum composite metal panels. The interior design offers open work areas, access to natural daylight, and modern finishes that provide a professional work environment.

Size of Building:
60,000 Square Feet

Amount of Masonry Used (include all types and number of units): 
Exterior Masonry: 130,000 standard sized bricks (3-5/8” x 2-1/4” x 7-5/8”).
Colors: Smokey Mountain Matte Modular and
 Mocha Matte Modular. Interior Masonry:
49,000 thin bricks (9/16” x 2-1/4” x 7-5/8”).
Colors: Smokey Mountain Matte Modular Thin Brick and
Mocha Matte Modular Thin Brick.

Project completion date:  March 2018

Explain the project and its unique use of masonry materials and techniques:
The Deseret First Credit Union (DFCU) Operations Center is located on a six-acre site and includes a 3-story, 60,000 SF office building. The facility is located in West Valley City, Utah, within the Lake Park Corporate Centre business park and is positioned to capture mountain and valley views. The building also overlooks the adjacent Stonebridge Golf Course. The design reflects a deliberate effort to create a contemporary office building and site that tie into the surrounding context.

The exterior design utilizes three primary materials including: brick, glass, and aluminum composite metal panels. The materials reflect current technologies while maintaining a sense of continuity with the surrounding context of the existing office park. The interior design offers open work areas that have been organized to allow interior daylight to penetrate deep within the floor plan.

A wide range of modern materials, finishes, and colors provide a fresh, professional, and clean setting for the work environment. Masonry material was an integral part of the exterior and interior design. The exterior design utilized 130,000 standard sized bricks as the primary exterior material.

The architect worked closely with the owner and office park association to assure that the design guidelines for the office park were followed. This specifically included using an earthtone colored brick as a primary building material type for the project. The building design was organized around two circular geometries making up the main entry, building core, and employee entry.

The work areas were defined as rectangular geometries on either side of the core, including large sweeping curved masonry walls to complement the long linear wall surfaces. The installation of the brick was particularly difficult along the various radial surfaces, which were 3-stories in height. Fraco Mast Climber scaffolding was used on the exterior of the building to safely and efficiently reach all heights of the building and allow for more efficient masonry installation.

One challenging area was the circular geometry at the main entry which stepped back at levels 2 and 3. This area required meticulous attention to detail to achieve a consistent and smooth finish along the radial surfaces. A key feature for the interior design was to visually continue the brick material indoors at all three levels. On each floor, the brick was precisely laid out to visually continue the mortar lines to the interior of the building.

The interior used 49,000 thin sized bricks on selected walls to create the connection of indoors to outdoors. Using a thin brick on the interior allowed the owners to save on the cost of material and reduced the weight for the required building engineering. During the interior installation, masonry contractors had to follow a strict schedule to keep in line with the other interior finishes within the building. Utilizing the masonry material for the exterior and interior design greatly enhanced the overall success of the project allowing conformance with the office park design guidelines and providing a connection of the interior finish materials to the exterior finish materials.
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CURTIS MINER ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECT

HORIZON MASONRY
ACE TILE AND STONE
MASON  CONTRACTOR

DESERET FIRST CREDIT UNION
OWNER

ZWICK CONSTRUCTION​
GENERAL  CONTRACTOR

INTERSTATE BRICK
MAJOR  SUPPLIER

Click on photos below to enlarge.
Photos provided by
Martin van Hemert