Utah recently cut the ribbon on its tallest building, a 42-story luxury residence in Salt Lake City called Astra Tower. While that is impressive enough, the building is using color coding on its external lighting to let the public know about air quality conditions, according to Axios.
The colors progress from white to orange, red, and purple as air quality goes from good to bad.
Astra Tower boasts other sustainability features such as LEED Gold energy efficiency, water conservation, and a hospital-grade air filtration system.
"We're big on sustainability, so anything we build is legal or better," said Shane Rensmon, president of real estate development for the developers, Kensington Investment Co., per the Deseret News.
"The design team envisioned Astra Tower as a transformative project, not only for its residents but for the broader Salt Lake Valley," Rensmon added.
The air quality reporting is timely, as Salt Lake City recently experienced dust storms and has the ninth-worst air quality nationwide. The city is actively engaged in a number of initiatives to improve air quality, including enhancing building electrification standards and improving public transportation.
Air quality will be a challenge as long as light-duty vehicles and home energy use continue producing significant pollution. Those emissions also contribute to droughts that lead to forest fires and erosion, which make air quality even worse.
Such dramatic events are highly visible manifestations of air quality loss, but Utah also has high ground-level ozone, which may be less apparent but is also exacerbating climate shifts.
At the very least, Astra Tower will let Salt Lake City residents know when the air is getting bad so they can take precautions such as seeking shelter and masking up.
"Our goal was to create a place that elevates urban living while contributing to the health, vitality, and long-term sustainability of the city," Rensmon said.
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