A Piece of Work: Industry Salt Lake City

Jason and Ellen Winkler began with a simple idea: reimagine what it means to go to the office, retell the story of a neighborhood, and rethink how experience shapes artistry. The Winklers overhauled several historic structures into adaptive-reuse projects throughout Denver before they set their sights on Salt Lake City, where the Granary District immediately caught their attention. “It’s the gateway to the city that’s been forgotten about,” Ellen says. There, she spotted a “big, beautiful” warehouse with character and history, unmistakably apropos for adaptive reuse. “Our goal has always been to welcome communities back to the neighborhoods around them that have been overlooked,” she adds. The couple knew they’d found the perfect place to create Industry and turn that vision into a reality. 

The building’s design, bridging eclecticism with functionality, is an apt metaphor for the community fostered within it. With 360,000 square feet—composed of Industry’s private offices, kitchen and dining areas, outdoor patios for both the tenants and the neighboring community, and a rooftop deck—there are limitless opportunities for community collaboration and bold design.

Century-old, utilitarian clerestories, originally chosen by factory designers for economical lighting, seeps the building in natural light, blurring the line between indoor and outdoor spaces. Contemporary details like curved soffits and neutral tones modernize the space, while the industrial steel beams and towering wood ceilings command mindfulness of the building’s rich history. The 5,000-square-foot rooftop deck serves as a sunny space to finish a project during work hours, but can be transformed during evenings and weekends into a stylish and well-equipped event space overlooking the Wasatch.

What’s next? “We want the community that surrounds this space to inspire activity, and that means creating smart, walkable, bikeable, dog-friendly neighborhoods,” Jason explains. “We have restaurant spaces, a hotel, apartment buildings, retail and outdoor spaces coming onboard,” Ellen adds. Stay tuned. 

Read more about the places and faces that make design happen in Utah.