Trolley Square
Encyclopedia
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, United States. It is considered to be a trendy high-end center and is the second-most-visited tourist destination within Salt Lake City proper, with 30% of its customers being from out of state. The center lies within close proximity to downtown Salt Lake City and the UTA TRAX
UTA TRAX
TRAX is a three-line light rail system in Utah's Salt Lake Valley, serving Salt Lake City and several of its suburbs throughout Salt Lake County. The system is operated by the Utah Transit Authority ....
light-rail system.
Description
Trolley Square is composed of barns that were built in 1908 to house Salt Lake City's streetcars. The streetcar system was dismantled in 1945, and the barns were converted into a two-story shopping center in 1972. The center is noted for its unusual architecture consisting of winding hallways, brick and wooden floors, fountains, old-trees, and wrought-iron balconies. Prominent tenants include Pottery BarnPottery Barn
Pottery Barn is an American-based home furnishing store chain with retail stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Since September 1986, when it was purchased from GAP, Inc, Pottery Barn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma, Inc....
, Cabin Fever (a popular card store), Restoration Hardware
Restoration Hardware
Restoration Hardware is an American furniture chain of home furnishings, bath fixtures and bathware, functional and decorative hardware and related merchandise. The company defines its wares as classic and authentic American. Restoration Hardware, Inc. sells its merchandise offering through its...
, Williams-Sonoma
Williams-Sonoma
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is a high-end American consumer retail company that sells kitchenwares, furniture and linens, as well as other housewares and home furnishings, along with a variety of specialty foods, soaps and lotions...
, Banana Republic, Old Spaghetti Factory, many art galleries, and local boutiques such as the fashion store Black Chandelier and The Secret Garden Children's Apparel In the past, Trolley Square used to also have a Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
arcade as well a four-screen theatre. Neither of these presently exist, though.
The Trolley Square water tower
Water tower
A water tower or elevated water tower is a large elevated drinking water storage container constructed to hold a water supply at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system....
is covered in red and blue neon lights
Neon sign
Neon signs are made using electrified, luminous tube lights that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in December, 1910 by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show. While they are used worldwide, neon signs...
, and it is a prominent feature of the Salt Lake City skyline
Skyline
A skyline is the overall or partial view of a city's tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon that a city's overall structure creates. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city, as...
, able to be spotted from miles away at night. For many years, the tower would give the local weather forecast based on the colors of lights, with solid blue being fair weather
Fair Weather
Fair Weather was a British rock band formed in 1970 by former Amen Corner guitarist and vocalist, Andy Fairweather Low. They are best known for their track, "Natural Sinner".-Biography:The band evolved from a split within Amen Corner...
, flashing blue being cloudy weather, solid red being rain
Rain
Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...
, and flashing red being snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
. As of recent, however, the tower has ceased its function as a weather forecaster, and simply displays a continuous pattern
Pattern
A pattern, from the French patron, is a type of theme of recurring events or objects, sometimes referred to as elements of a set of objects.These elements repeat in a predictable manner...
with the red and blue lights lit at the same time. When there used to be a four-screen theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
in Trolley Square, the titles of the movies that were playing would be posted on a sign attached to the water tower. Although the theatres no longer exist, the vacant sign can still be seen on the structure of the tower.
Another prominent feature of Trolley Square is the sky bridge that connects the main building to a small parking lot located across the street. the bridge goes over 600 South, and it features neon lights shaped in the form of a trolley.
Recently, a lot of construction
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
has been happening at Trolley Square. A new parking complex is being built on the back (west) end, and a new Whole Foods
Whole foods
Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as salt, carbohydrates, or fat. Examples of whole foods include unpolished grains, beans, fruits, vegetables...
store is being built on the northeast corner of the block. To accommodate for all of the construction, many of the landmarks have been moved, including the water tower, the Trolley Square Arch on the north end, and the trolley car.
Trolley Corners
On the other side of 700 East sits the Trolley Corners building. Presently, this building houses Tucci's Italian restaurant, Morris Murdock TravelMorris Murdock Travel, LLC
Morris Murdock Travel, a subsidiary of Simmons Media Group, is a travel agency headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah with 6 additional offices in Utah and Montana and home-based agents located throughout Utah, Idaho and Montana...
and 24 Hour Fitness. In the past, the building was the home of FM 100 Salt Lake and had three movie theatre screens.
Major Retailers
- American ApparelAmerican ApparelAmerican Apparel is a clothing manufacturer in the United States. It is a vertically integrated clothing manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer that also performs its own design, advertising, and marketing...
- BrookstoneBrookstoneBrookstone is a chain of retail stores in the United States. Its first store was opened in 1973 in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Its headquarters are currently located in Merrimack, New Hampshire....
- Pottery BarnPottery BarnPottery Barn is an American-based home furnishing store chain with retail stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Since September 1986, when it was purchased from GAP, Inc, Pottery Barn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma, Inc....
- Restoration HardwareRestoration HardwareRestoration Hardware is an American furniture chain of home furnishings, bath fixtures and bathware, functional and decorative hardware and related merchandise. The company defines its wares as classic and authentic American. Restoration Hardware, Inc. sells its merchandise offering through its...
- Williams-SonomaWilliams-SonomaWilliams-Sonoma, Inc. is a high-end American consumer retail company that sells kitchenwares, furniture and linens, as well as other housewares and home furnishings, along with a variety of specialty foods, soaps and lotions...
- Whole Foods
Sale and development
Trolley Square is owned by ScanlanKemperBard Companies, LLCLimited liability company
A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...
, of Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, who purchased it in August 2006 from Simon Property Group
Simon Property Group
Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American commercial real estate company, ranked #1 in the United States as the largest real estate investment trust. Simon is a fully integrated real estate company which operates from five retail real estate platforms: regional malls, Premium Outlet Centers, The...
for $38.6 million. The shopping center is scheduled to undergo an $80 million expansion consisting of several new underground parking structures, a Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market is a foods supermarket chain based in Austin, Texas which emphasizes "natural and organic products." The company has been ranked among the most socially responsible businesses and placed third on the U.S...
store, and a mid-rise luxury condominium tower containing at least 232 units. So far, a parking garage located behind the mall has been completed, and the normal parking lot is currently being worked on.