Cottonwood Heights, nestled at the base of Cottonwood Canyons, is an ideal residential and business location. More than 33,000 people call Cottonwood Heights home and the city realized there was a crucial need for a new municipal center that would serve as a gathering place for the community. This new building would be open for the public use and serve as a community events center that would better facilitate citizen involvement with municipal government.
Ensign Engineering proudly helped bring this need to life, with the result being a space that spans 4.77 acres, houses 20 offices, six meeting rooms, a large multi-purpose room and separate wings for administration and police.
The Ensign team worked closely with the design and construction team throughout the design process, allowing us to have a better understanding of the project goals and each team’s goals. This project was architecturally led and required clear and consistent coordination to ensure that our portion of the design integrated well with the rest of the design.
Every project has a unique set of constraints to work within and challenges to solve. For the municipal center, the grading and drainage of the project site were particularly challenging. This issue demanded that we work closely with the design/construction team, City Manager and City Engineer to develop several solutions prior to moving forward with the final solution. The final solution included a combination of walls, surface drainage, subsurface drain systems, and ponds to facilitate the safe routing of rainfall in an effort to protect the Municipal Center and surrounding homes from potential flooding.
The Cottonwood Heights Municipal Center is now open to the public and provides a space for the community to come to be part of municipal government, community events, and cultural experiences. Ensign Engineering loved the opportunity to help bring to life a building that builds up the community and reflects the natural beauty Utah communities have to offer.