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SALT LAKE CITY — A pair of Jacobsen Construction projects are the winners of Engineering News-Record (ENR) Excellence in Sustainability awards and another has won a region-best Excellence in Safety Award, the magazine recently announced.
The Westminster University L.S. Skaggs Integrated Wellness Center was named by ENR Mountain States as the overall Excellence in Sustainability winner in the region for 2025, while Astra Tower also received an Excellence in Sustainability award of merit. An independent panel of experts selected the winners are reviewing “projects that exceeded sustainable design and construction goals,” ENR said in its announcement.
Grand Hyatt Deer Valley was announced as the winner of ENR Mountain States’ top Excellence in Safety award for 2025, following a similar independent judging process “with a special emphasis on safety programs, cultures and results,” the publication said.
All three project teams will be formally presented with their awards at a celebratory breakfast hosted by ENR on Dec. 2 in Salt Lake City.
The unique sustainability and safety achievements of these winning Jacobsen projects are described in more detail below.
Excellence in Sustainability Award | Westminster University L.S. Skaggs Integrated Wellness Center
Architect: VCBO Architecture
Owner: Westminster University
Salt Lake City, Utah
The Integrated Wellness Center is a fully electric facility, completely powered by photovoltaic rooftop solar panels. The building produces net-positive energy, thanks to extra power that is stored in onsite solar batteries for later use. Coinciding with the building’s goal to promote physical health, the building’s 100% clean energy contributes to improved local air quality, benefitting the wellbeing of the occupants and the entire campus. This environmental contribution is especially important in light of Salt Lake City’s relatively poor air quality as a result of its unique geography, and sets a high standard for the use of clean energy as part of future construction projects on campus.
The building’s spatial orientation also aids energy efficiency. Windows to the west are limited to view windows. Large windows to the east and south are shaded by roof overhangs. These features limit solar heat gain, so the building remains cool in the summer, significantly reducing the amount of air conditioning required.
Material choices also played a role in strengthening the building’s sustainability; the production and installation of cross-laminated timber frames and ceiling panels used less embodied carbon than steel or concrete would have.
Excellence in Sustainability Award of Merit | Astra Tower
Architect: HKS
Developer: Kensington Investment Company (KIC)
Salt Lake City, Utah
Astra Tower is a standard bearer for environmentally sustainable construction on high-rise urban residential projects, with an emphasis on addressing important Utah environmental issues such as air quality and water conservation.
Salt Lake City’s growth and its geographic location next to the Wasatch Mountain Range make it prone to inversion pollution, leading to the city frequently ranking poorly in air quality. To do its part to address this problem, Astra Tower was built according to LEED Gold standards (official certification pending).
The building features a central air intake system equipped with two-stage advanced filtration, enhancing indoor air quality as much as possible for residents and guests. Operable windows facilitate natural ventilation, while first-of-its-kind air quality sensors were integrated into each unit’s thermostat. The project team engaged in several efforts to educate tenants about these features, and to build the high-rise such that it could clean incoming air and released it back outside cleaner than it was before.
Additionally, a color-changing beacon at the top of Astra Tower uses different shades of lighting to alert Utahns to real-time air quality conditions, leveraging its prominent skyline presence to encourage behavioral shifts around air pollution. In partnership with Utah Clean Air (UCAIR), the building connects to a sensor that provides live air quality data.
Astra Tower is set to consume approximately 14 million gallons of potable water per year, representing at least a 35% reduction below expected baseline usage.
Excellence in Safety Award | Grand Hyatt Deer Valley
Architect: OZ Architecture
Developer: Extell Development Company
Park City, Utah
The construction team at Grand Hyatt Deer Valley completed more than 150,000 worker hours with only one OSHA-recordable incident, achieving a low recordable rate of 1.29. With a project duration of more than three years and peak periods of about 400 people onsite, exhaustive steps were required in order to achieve this strong safety record.
Because of the extreme snowy weather during much of the project, project leaders proactively distributed Yaktrax cleats (devices that give additional traction to work boots) to all workers onsite to help prevent slips and falls. These proved remarkably effective in preventing injuries.
The project team paid special attention to crane loads and strictly followed all crane delivery protocols, with constant use of horns to alert everyone on the jobsite to the work being done using that equipment. Project leadership was also extremely strict about properly tying off and properly utilizing using toe boards when working at heights and set clear expectations that violating of height protection rules would promptly warrant removal from the job.
Key elements of project leaders’ messaging and tone-setting about working safely included jobsite-specific safety orientations, periodic jobsite-wide safety stand downs, regular and impromptu safety inspections, and safety shares required at the start of every meeting.