case study · public art at scale
salt lake city international airport
the job
the vision is Gordon's. landing it was ours.
The airport wanted art built into the architecture, so it brought sculptor Gordon Huether in while the building was still being designed.
Brian Scharf served as Gordon's design director and led his design department. We took Gordon's concepts from napkin sketch to final pass-off files, coordinating with senior airport officials, HOK, fabricators and sub-vendors to land each one. Every piece had to work for the artist, the architect, the airport and the fabricator at the same time.
the first
new U.S. hub airport of the 21st century
$5.1 billion
rebuild of the whole airport
12 years
from start to completion in October 2026
the built work
what it looks like when it lands.
Tap any photo to open it full screen.
hands on
not just coordinating. designing.
on top of running the design department, Brian designed directly on many of the pieces: light, sound, story and space.
- River Tunnel
- Art design and development of the immersive installation, the lighting approach, the sound strategy and the soundtrack curation.
- The Peaks
- The design and lighting approach for the sculpture travelers see on the drive in.
- The Canyon
- Lighting design for the canyon walls.
- Sustainability Wall
- Design of the exhibit space.
- Hoberman Olympic Arch
- The installation with its Olympic signage and logo, and a key hand in the arch's lighting plan.
how it got designed
mockups, pin-ups and a full-scale test.
Before anything was fabricated, the tunnel got built at full size in a warehouse so the fins, the light and the sound could be walked through and argued over. The boards below are where the profiles, colors and templates got settled.
designed by Brian
the sustainability wall.
An exhibit space for the airport's sustainability story: five bays along the concourse, each one a different message about water, waste, carbon and the landscape outside.
the work
Utah's canyons, rivers and peaks, brought inside.
01
The Canyon
Gordon's largest airport installation, inspired by Utah's slot canyons. 362 feet along the east and west walls of the main terminal, with 500+ tensile membrane fins, more than 2 acres of composite fabric and the equivalent of seven miles of aluminum tubing.
02
The Falls
A 65-foot sculpture in the main terminal's escalator well.
03
River Tunnel
An immersive installation in the roughly 1,000-foot tunnel connecting Concourses A and B.
04
The Peaks
The sculpture travelers see on the drive in.
05
Northern Light + Canyon 2.0
Installations in the North Concourse.
06
Column Plates + Benches
Main terminal pieces that echo The Canyon.
07
SLC Art Wall
A new art wall in the TSA screening area.
08
Sustainability Wall
An exhibit space about the airport's sustainability story.
09
Hoberman Olympic Arch
The arch from the 2002 Winter Games, reinstalled with Olympic signage and logo.
10
You Are Here, World Map + Flying Machines
Iconic pieces from the old airport, refurbished and reinstalled.
Gordon also served as the airport's Consulting Artist, working with HOK to place the 135 works in its collection and helping select the concepts for the 24 Whimsy Walls in its restrooms.
team
- Artist
- Gordon Huether
- Design director
- Brian Scharf, BRAVE Design
- Architect
- HOK
- Client
- Salt Lake City Department of Airports
press
- May 2025Utah Construction and Design
- Sep 2024Airport World — Works of Art
- Jun 2024Condé Nast Traveler — Salt Lake City's New Airport is Art-Filled, Multi-Sensorial, and Designed for the Future
- Oct 2020Travel + Leisure — How Airports Are Promising a Better Future Once Travel Bounces Back
- Sep 2020Business Insider — passengers journey through a massive canyon-themed art installation to get to their gate