A TRIP THROUGH THE NEW SLC AIRPORT ALLOWS TRAVELERS TO EXPERIENCE UTAH’S MAGICAL LANDSCAPE WITHOUT EVER LEAVING THE TERMINAL
Creating lifetime memories is often the goal for travelers, but officials at the new Salt Lake City International Airport, set to open September 2020, also want travelers’ time spent coming and going through SLC to be just as memorable.
“We want to make sure that people who come through our airport, as well as those who are connecting through Salt Lake City and never stepping outside the airport, remember which airport they were in, and our art installations will definitely help them remember their time here;’ said Nancy Volmer, airport director of communications and marketing.
To bring the majesty and magic of the Utah landscape into the airport’s aesthetic, California-based artist Gordon Huether has created several cohesive large-scale art installations that evoke the state’s geographical wonders.
“From the very beginning there was this very idea of a canyon the airport is even designed in such a way that the main spine is a metaphor for a canyon,” said Huether, whose permanent Canyon creation measures 362 feet (about the size of a football field!), stretching from the arrivals lobby to the grand plaza, and includes benches, sculptural columns and plates.
Huether has also created The Falls, a sculpture created with light-sensitive dichroic glass fins and light-refracting glass rods, which will be installed at the three-story escalator located at the main point of the high-traffic area, and The River tunnel, which connects the two terminals. Finally, the colorful Northern Lights installation will hang as the focal point for passengers past security.
Even the airport’s 24 restrooms will get the full-scale art treatment thanks to 18 local and national artists who make up the “Whimsy Wall” project. The large-scale art walls will be unique vinyl wraps created from the artists’ original work.
Finally, “The New SLC Art Wall;’ located in the TSA security checkpoint and measuring approximately 30′ x 11 ‘, will speak to “the spirit, culture, people and context of Utah.” Local artists Soonju Kwon, Reihaneh Noori and Hannah Vaughn were recently chosen to design, fabricate and install a unique and original work of art for the space.
For more on the New SLC Airport Redevelopment Program: slcairport.com/thenewslc
By Lisa Antonucci
