The original Salt Palace, completed in 1969, became the beloved home of several professional sports teams. However, in 1994 the arena was demolished to make way for a 616,000 sf convention center built in its place. The Salt Palace new features expansive exhibit areas up to 270 feet wide — an impressive 180 feet of this width is column free. One of the most striking architectural features is the creative use of hollow structural steel in exposed applications.

The Phase II Expansion was completed in 2001 and added 214,000 square feet of meeting/exhibit space, plus three levels of underground parking below the exhibit hall for 600 cars. Structural highlights include: long-span custom steel truss and open web steel joist roof framing with two-way, post-tensioned suspended concrete parking deck, and a post-tensioned concrete beam/joist suspended exhibit hall floor.

Spurred by the popular bi-annual Outdoor Retailers Convention, the Phase III expansion was required to accommodate Salt Lake City’s growing post-Olympics convention market. Phase one of this expansion included a two-level underground, pan deck system parking garage with more than 400 stalls. Phase two included 150,000 square feet of new exhibit space and 90,000 square feet of new meeting space.