Friday, March 27, 2015

Largest class at Bridgerland Applied Technology College will graduate this summer

The interior design program at Bridgerland Applied Technology College will graduate its largest senior class this year.


Currently, the program currently has 13 students enrolled. Two high school students and four college students will be receiving their certificates of completion at the end of this semester.


“When I started the program in 2012 there were only four students including myself. So our program size has tripled in the past three years,” said Janae Wright, an interior design instructor.


Wright could only speculate as to why the program has grown but student Mikaela Sullivan said the program appealed to her because of cost and flexibility.


“I didn’t really want to pay that much to go to Utah State or another college, so I decided to go Bridgerland instead. It’s a lot cheaper and I will still get the same certificate as I would from a univeristy,” she said. “ I like that you learn at your own pace. It’s really good about making yourself accountable for your work.”

The other graduating seniors include Taylor Swenson, William Primmer, Kate Bennion, Natalie Howard and Carline Paulsen.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Smithfield adds new building

Milieu Design, a local architectural and interior design company, is heading the design of a new building for Smithfield.


The new building will be part of a larger business park that will be going up between 700 South and 800 South. The general contractor, Jeff Jackson of Ironwood Construction, said they hope to break ground in less than a month if their plans get approved.


The building was contracted by Prestige Solutions, a company that specializes in smartphone screen protectors and accessories.


Milieu Design was contacted two weeks ago by Jackson. “We met with his client to find out what his needs were and then from there we developed a concept,” project manager Kurt Leikis said. “Then we just barely showed them our concept renderings and we got their likes and dislikes.”


Ironwood has been working with Milieu for the past eight months and they are currently working on six projects together.  


“I don’t like the way that the traditional contractor and architecture relationship is set up,” Jackson said. “They’re willing to work with me in more of a design-build scenario where the general contractor has quite a bit of input in the design stage and this helps to help keep my customers happy. So far it’s been a very good relationship.”


According to Leikis, the project’s conceptualization has gone quickly. In less than two weeks a plan has been approved by the client with only a few minor changes requested.


Liekis said the next step is to send out loose plans to the engineering firm.


“Then we just make the necessary tweaks,” Leikis said.

The project does not have a start date yet because the plans need to be approved and stamped by engineers. “If contractors, engineers and the client all play nice and there aren’t too many revisions I would expect this part of the process to take less than a month and then construction can start,” Leikis said.

Milieu's concept renderings of the building are below.