Housing project: a historic military base becomes a home for university students and Olympic athletes.

When Architectural Design West was charged with transforming a historic army facility into living space for students at the University of Utah, the project wasn't as simple as designing a campus housing complex. Rather, it entailed creating a complex housing design for students and, temporarily, for athletes competing in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

"We had a number of unique issues to consider," says Bob Guyt, director of public and commercial design at Architectural Design West. "The site itself was extremely large, and a great deal of thought was given to ensuring that the new architecture blended with the historic flavor of the surrounding area. Furthermore, the new structures had to be easily converted from student rooms into temporary quarters for the athletes, then back again once the Olympics were over."

Those needs and concerns came from four major entities with significant stakes in the project: the state, which had a financial investment as host of the Olympics; the university, whose students would be permanently housed there; the US government, which still owned a large portion of the fort complex; and the Olympic committee responsible for meeting the specific housing guidelines for the athletes.

By using 3D design, animation, and visualization software, the architects were able to communicate the evolving designs for this enormous site effectively to all parties. The tools also helped the team manage the project efficiently throughout the entire design process, which spanned nearly four years. "There was no room for mistakes; the project had to be done on time," says Guyt. "As one phase was completed, another would begin, so keeping everything organized became an important function."

Historical Perspective

Once Salt Lake City was selected to host the 2002 Winter Games, a search began for an ideal site to construct the Olympic Village, the living and activity center for the competitors during their stay. Situated adjacent to the university campus, the still-operational century-old Fort Douglas complex proved an excellent choice. The area is within walking distance of the university stadium, where the opening and closing Olympic ceremonies will be held. (Most of the athletic events will occur at venues within the city or in the surrounding mountains.) Also, the newly constructed complex would satisfy the university's immediate need for additional student housing. So, a 67-acre portion of the fort area was signed over to the university through a land transfer arrangement by the US and state governments for the multi-purpose housing project.

Working with design firm HENV of Norfolk, Virginia, the team at Architectural Design West used Autodesk's AutoCAD software running on Pentium III PCs to model 21 new buildings on the site, taking into consideration the visually sensitive context of dozens of existing historic buildings that remained within the donated land tract and the remaining fort area. To communicate the aesthetic impact of the new student-housing complex, the group modeled the entire fort area in 3D, and created an animated walkthrough using 3ds max software from Discreet. After the project was under way, the group used Evans & Sutherland's RapidSite software to create a photorealistic interactive visualization, giving the clients the ability to view in real time the proposed buildings within the context of their surroundings from any perspective.