{"id":106772,"date":"2026-11-01T13:12:48","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T20:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=106772"},"modified":"2026-11-03T13:50:42","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T20:50:42","slug":"two-moves-umoca-and-the-kimball-art-center-destined-for-new-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/two-moves-umoca-and-the-kimball-art-center-destined-for-new-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Moves: UMOCA and the Kimball Art Center Destined for New Homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kimball Art Center is marking its 50th birthday Nov. 6<\/a> with cake, clay challenges and a scavenger hunt through its history. The party comes as the Kimball prepares to leave Park City proper for a new building in Kimball Junction. And in October, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art announced that its downtown Salt Lake City home will be torn down and replaced.<\/p>\n

Both moves are tied to large private developments. In Salt Lake City, Smith Entertainment Group’s new downtown district is drawing UMOCA closer to the center of things. In Park City, the Kimball is following a developer out of the town center, a decision it announced in July 2025, four months after the Sundance Film Festival said it would leave for Boulder, Colorado.<\/p>\n

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Architectural rendering of proposed UMOCA facility. Design by Allied Works Architecture. Images courtesy of Salt Lake County, Allied Works Architecture, and Utah Museum of Contemporary Art.<\/p><\/div>\n

UMOCA comes up from underground<\/h2>\n

\u201cOur current building will be torn down,\u201d UMOCA executive director Laura Allred Hurtado said at a virtual community briefing on Oct. 22.\u00a0The building sits in the path of a pedestrian paseo planned to run from City Creek to the Delta Center through the new sports, entertainment, culture and convention district. In a letter to supporters, the museum said a new building will go up just north of the current one, near Abravanel Hall, and serve as a gateway to the district.<\/p>\n

“For nearly fifty years, our home at 20 S. West Temple has been a cornerstone of contemporary art, culture, and community in Utah,” Hurtado wrote in a letter to supporter. “Since 1979, this building has sheltered our exhibitions, fostered brave artistic experimentation, and served as a gathering place for our community.” But Hurtado has also described the 1979 building as a liability. Its sunken plaza put the museum below street level, and she told KSL the effect was to make the building invisible. When Smith Entertainment Group’s district was first proposed, museum leaders told KSL they could accept a new building as long as it stayed on the same block. It will.<\/p>\n

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Proposed site map showing the footprint of UMOCA’s new purpose-built facility, situated just north of its current location as a gateway to the cultural district. (Note: Map and spatial boundaries are for illustrative purposes only and represent an approximate layout.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Portland-based Allied Works will design the new museum, partnering with Salt Lake County Arts & Culture. Renderings show a low building with pitched roofs, masonry walls and tall glass storefronts set in a landscaped plaza. Lead designer Emily Kappes told the Tribune<\/em> the facade draws on Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels<\/em>. Plans include a cafe, community and event spaces, and galleries with natural light.<\/p>\n

The museum is staging its exit. Its May 1, 2027 gala will be a New Orleans-style wake. So Long<\/em>, the final exhibition, opens May 22 and will fill the building with work donated by artists who have shown there since 1979; the art comes down with the walls. The building closes to the public July 10, 2027. In November, UMOCA plans to open an interim space, the UMOCA Lab, at a location not yet announced, where it says it will test exhibition ideas that will shape the new building. The new museum is scheduled to open in 2031, the organization’s centennial.<\/p>\n

The project has no official price tag. A spokesperson for Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson told the Tribune<\/em> its cost is folded into the district’s, and that it will be paid for with public money and private donations.<\/p>\n

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The Kimball Art Center plans to build a new, permanent home next to the Swaner Preserve in Kimball Junction.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Kimball’s third try<\/h2>\n

The Kimball has been looking for a permanent home for more than a decade. Bill Kimball first opened it 1976 in the old Eley Garage at Main Street and Heber Avenue.\u00a0 It remained there for more than 45 years, even as the center continued to expand its programming. In 2012, the Kimball asked Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to design an expansion at their current location, but residents objected to the proposed 80-foot tower of reclaimed railroad ties. Even a scaled-down redesign was rejected by the city’s historic preservation board in 2014. The Kimball gave up on Main Street during the pandemic and moved into a temporary space on Kearns Boulevard. They once again BIG to designe a permanent home in Park City’s planned arts district in Bonanza Park.<\/p>\n

But in July 2025 the Kimball dropped that plan, citing \u201crecent shifts\u201d in the Bonanza Park project, and signed a letter of intent with developer Dakota Pacific (now Six Ridge Partners) for land beside the former Skullcandy building in Kimball Junction, outside city limits. In a letter to members, executive director Aldy Milliken said the 1.62-acre site came through a donation of 1.1 acres and a reduced-rate sale of half an acre more. He also wrote that the current location \u201cis not viable long term.\u201d Park City said in a statement that it had always envisioned keeping the Kimball’s headquarters in the heart of town.<\/p>\n

The new building is planned at 16,000 to 20,000 square feet, more than double the current 9,000, according to TownLift. It will sit within Six Ridge’s Altus Station development, alongside an expanded transit center and a new Park City visitor center, KPCW reports. In July, Milliken told KPCW the board had narrowed a field of 12 architecture firms to five: Sn\u00f8hetta, MASS Design, Michael Maltzan, Thomas Pfeiffer and Herzog & de Meuron. Sn\u00f8hetta, Maltzan and Herzog & de Meuron presented at a public talk in September. No selection has been announced. Milliken has described a timeline of roughly five years: two of fundraising, two of construction.<\/p>\n

Light and land<\/h2>\n

The two institutions are aiming for roughly the same opening window, and neither has said publicly what its building will cost. Their ideas about the buildings differ. UMOCA is selling daylight and street presence after decades below grade. At the Kimball Junction site, which requires a 40-foot setback from nearby wetlands, Milliken told TownLift he imagines building into the hillside, noting that exhibitions \u201cdon’t actually like light.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, both are using art to mark the leaving. UMOCA is asking artists for work that will be demolished with its building. At its birthday party, the Kimball is inviting visitors to decorate a clay house with whatever the Kimball means to them.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/h2>\n