The Neighborhood Of The Future in Utah

When you think of the future, what comes to mind? The Jetsons, Star Trek, the books of Isaac Asimov? We all have different visions of what the future will look like. Here in the United States, the neighborhood of the future is being built in Utah. 

In Europe, Paris, to be exact, Fast Company says that it’s one of the first cities to embrace the idea of the 15-minute city. What’s a 15-minute city? Well, it’s a type of urban planning that allows for everything that you need to take care of during the day, to be done within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from your home. 

Utah will be home to the first 15-minute city in the United States. The Point, a new neighborhood, that will find its home in Draper is being constructed with 15-minute urban planning. The Wasatch Front is notorious for inversions that make the air quality, particularly during the winter, pretty bad. With The Point, the hope is that people will be driving less, but not completely giving up on having a car. Peter Kindel, an urban design and planning principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill told Bloomberg that “It’s more than possible to live with one car to make that big-box store trip or go skiing. But for families and young people that are going to be part of the community, they won’t need that on a day-to-day basis.” 

The Point, which will have 7,400 residential units and at least 30,000 jobs is currently in the demolition process of construction where the Utah State Prison used to be and is set to begin vertical construction starting in 2025.