Downtown Salt Lake City Skyscraper Cleans the air Around it

The newly built Astra Tower filters air for its own residents and for the city.

1 minute read

April 1, 2026, 6:00 AM PDT

By Diana Ionescu @aworkoffiction


High-rise building with white top floors in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah with mountains in background.

The luxury Astra Tower opened in 2025. | HKS / Astra Tower

A new high-rise building in Salt Lake City uses an air filtration system to clean air as it enters the building’s 372 residential units — and return it to the outside air cleaner than it went in.

As Nate Berg explains in Fast Company, architects HKS designed the building with a single point of entry for its air, which is then filtered and delivered to its interior spaces. “Astra Tower—now the city’s tallest building—shares air quality with residents (via in-unit monitors) and the city using exterior color-coded LEDs updated with data from the EPA and NOAA.”

Tuesday, March 24, 2026 in Fast Company

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