Concrete tilt-up wall panels are now rising across from 300 West, from Salt Lake City's West High School, marking visible progress on a $300 million rebuild of Utah's oldest public high school. The new five-story building will eventually replace the current 1922 structure, but for now, students continue attending class in the old building while construction unfolds just across the street.
The project is being executed in two distinct phases so students never have to move into temporary portables, according to the Salt Lake City School District. Phase One centers on a five-story academic tower and an indoor athletic field house, with completion targeted for 2030; once students move into that new facility, Phase Two will begin, involving demolition of parts of the old building and construction of new outdoor athletic fields on the current site. As reported by KUTV, the overall rebuild is scheduled for completion in 2032.
Jason Olson, with the Salt Lake City School District, told the station that the new building will pay homage to West High's historic roots while accommodating 21st-century technological demands. He said the main lunchroom has already been moved downstairs because the school needed more room, and that a new auditorium has been added to the building. The new structure will also feature a massive commons area designed to accommodate the full student body, which currently numbers more than 2,500 students in grades 9 through 12, per TopHap.
A Landmark Clock Tower Finds New Purpose
West High has been a Salt Lake City landmark for more than a century, and district officials plan to keep its iconic clock tower standing even as the surrounding building comes down. Once Phase Two is complete, the tower will serve as a grand entrance to the new athletic fields built on the current school site, according to the station's report.
Assistant Principal Shannon Wilson, who has witnessed 15 years of the school's legacy, is encouraging alumni to visit the old building and remember their experiences before it disappears. Wilson hopes graduates will take the opportunity to say goodbye to the school as it currently stands.
Utah's Oldest School Confronts Decades of Deferred Maintenance
Established in 1890 as Salt Lake High School, West High is recognized as Utah's oldest public high school, and its current main building, completed in 1922, features a Gothic architectural style, according to Preservation Utah. The school sits on Union Square, a 10-acre block laid out during the original 1847 survey of Salt Lake City that once hosted pioneer camps and served as the first campus of the University of Deseret before West High moved there in 1901, per the entry on Wikipedia.
The rebuild is funded through a $730 million bond package that Salt Lake City voters approved in November 2024 with 61.06 percent support, according to Ballotpedia, with $300 million of that total earmarked specifically for the West High project. It was the district's first general obligation bond proposal in 25 years, with the previous bond dating back to 1999 — a gap that left the district managing outdated HVAC, electrical, and plumbing systems across its aging high schools. The district has estimated the bond package carries a residential property tax impact of roughly $38.33 per year for every $100,000 in assessed home value, and has noted it can also tap capital levy funds if bond revenues fall short.
Health Clinic and Solar Panels Round Out the New Campus
Beyond classrooms and athletic space, the new West High campus will include a dedicated 3,600-square-foot health clinic operated by University of Utah Health, offering integrated physical, mental, and behavioral healthcare staffed by pediatricians, psychiatrists, and social workers, according to the Salt Lake Education Foundation. The rebuild is also designed to incorporate on-site solar power generation, funded in part by $80 million in sustainability upgrades set aside within the broader 2024 bond as the district works to reduce carbon emissions across 14 facilities.
West High is not the only campus getting this treatment under the 2024 bond. Salt Lake City voters' approval also funds a parallel $300 million rebuild of Highland High's construction overhaul in Sugar House, part of the same district-wide push to modernize its aging high school facilities, as per Hoodline.
For now, the transformation remains a work in progress. West High has outgrown its current building, and while construction continues across the street, students and staff are left to navigate the space between the school's past and its future — one that district officials say will still carry echoes of the original, even as it becomes one of Utah's newest high schools.
-4.webp?w=160&h=400&fit=crop&crop=edges)
