1488 South 400 East in Salt Lake City, Utah
- mentioned in Liberty Wells Historic District:
Despite the redevelopment, the Wells community continues to retain a residential atmosphere and zoning ordinances allow very limited commercial development in the heart of the community. Historical buildings, such as the ca. 1930 South High School building, which now serves as the Salt Lake Community College campus, are being used rather than replaced. However, this has not always been the case; the apartment buildings at 1488 South 400 East and adjacent lots are typical examples of modern (non-historical) multi-family housing that has been constructed in small numbers within the district. With few exceptions, such buildings are scattered individually amongst single-family homes rather than in complexes or clusters. Not only is the massing of these properties out of proportion with the predominantly single-family housing of the rest of the neighborhood, but the focus on accommodating the modern automobile culture results in property configurations that are inconsistent with those of the majority of residential properties; that is, automobile parking is situated in front of or directly adjacent to the buildings whereas the majority of historic properties have garages at the rear of the parcels, accessed by mid-block alley ways. Additionally, because of the narrow but deep nature of the platted lots in Wells, construction of these large apartment complexes required that they be oriented with their long axis perpendicular to the frontage road, creating a situation in which the primary public façade is the side of the building, devoid of doorways, porches, and windows that typify the single-family homes in the rest of the neighborhood.
