Hidden Waters Installation

The Hidden Waters installation will celebrate water in our oasis on the edge of the desert. It will provide a series of narratives that highlight Salt Lake City’s relationship with its hydrology and the stream that built our city. It will rediscover narratives lost to history, such as the Indigenous Peoples of the Salt Lake Valley, as well as contemporary cultural narratives, such as the Greatest Snow on Earth, the 2034 Winter Olympics as water sports, stream daylighting, the Great Salt Lake, and more. It will build education and stewardship of the hydrology in our city named after water.

The installation will be focused on North Temple along City Creek where it flows above ground and then below ground underneath the street in a concrete pipe. The installation will connect pedestrians from City Creek Park and a trail system all the way to the top of City Creek Canyon, to destinations along North Temple, and finally to the Utah Transit Authority’s North Temple Frontrunner/TRAX Station and the Folsom Trail corridor at 600 West. It will animate the often pedestrian-devoid space along North Temple and will be focused on more trafficked areas, such as bus stops and/or destinations. It will highlight a past stream daylighting project at City Creek Park, which transformed a former surface parking lot into a beautiful natural oasis with a restored City Creek in the heart of downtown. It will also highlight a future project to uncover City Creek along the Folsom Trail—turning a former rail corridor into a trail and creek corridor.