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Construction · Provo, UT · Home city
Blackbird Construction is based in Provo. Danny Bird has been building since 2001, and the projects on this page are Provo projects. Residential and commercial, from the first budget conversation through the final walkthrough.
Home city
Provo is where Blackbird works from, and it is a more complicated place to build than it looks from the freeway. The city runs from the Utah Lake shoreline up to the base of the Wasatch Range, and almost everything that matters to a construction budget changes across that distance.
The housing reflects it. By Provo's own published figures, roughly half the city's housing stock was built before 1980, and the city states plainly in its general plan that an aging stock means more recurring maintenance for owners. About 60 percent of Provo's occupied units are renter occupied, well above the rest of Utah County, and over 40 percent of residents are students. Only a small fraction of the housing has been built since 2010.
The other consequence is that most of Provo east of Interstate 15 is already developed. The city's general plan says so directly: infill and redevelopment are the most likely types of development across most of central and eastern Provo. In practice, that means the work here is remodeling, additions, basement build-outs, and commercial renovation far more often than it is a bare lot.
Permits and approvals
Provo runs its own permitting, its own power utility, and its own historic review. Knowing which of those three touch your project is most of the battle.
The Development Services Department at 445 West Center Street runs permitting, and the Building Division issues permits. Applications go through the Provo Online Portal, which runs on CityView, and review is coordinated with planning, public works, fire, and historic review as applicable.
Provo operates its own municipal electric utility. New construction carries both an aid to construction charge covering the materials and installation of service, and a hook-up fee for connecting service and metering. Those are city processes, not third party utility processes.
A Certificate of Appropriateness is required before construction or alteration on Landmarks Register buildings and on property within the Provo Downtown Historic District. Minor work can often be approved administratively by staff.
Provo publishes Development Design Standards that are updated annually, plus a separate storm drainage design manual. Site work, storm drainage, and right of way work are governed by those in addition to the building code.
The ground
The Utah Geological Survey has mapped the Provo quadrangle in detail. The short version is that the east side and the west side of the city are two different construction problems.
Lake Bonneville left a bench of gravel and sand against the Wasatch Range and finer silt and clay out toward Utah Lake. The city treats roughly the 5,200 foot elevation as the approximate upper boundary for urban development along the eastern benches.
The fans at the mouths of Rock Canyon, Slate Canyon, and the other range front drainages were deposited by debris flows and debris floods. UGS is explicit that a debris flow hazard investigation is warranted when developing on an alluvial fan.
UGS states that saturated sandy sediments prone to liquefaction underlie much of Utah Valley, and a liquefaction potential map for Utah County has been published. Shallow groundwater and marshes are mapped along Utah Lake and Provo Bay.
UGS calls it the most prominent extensional structure in the area and indicates potential earthquakes of moment magnitude 7.0 to 7.5. Trenching near Rock Canyon documented about 10.8 feet of vertical displacement in the most recent event.
Neighborhoods
The city organizes them into five districts, each with an elected neighborhood chair. Where your project sits changes the housing type, the approvals, and the ground under it.
Rock Canyon, Indian Hills, Oak Hills, Foothills, Edgemont, North Timpview, and Sherwood Hills sit up against the mountains. Slope, geologic reporting, alluvial fan soils, and the Critical Hillside overlay are the governing issues here.
Joaquin, Maeser, Franklin, Dixon, Timp, and University hold much of the older housing and much of the rental market. Older framing, undersized services, and layered additions are normal.
The Provo Downtown Historic District covers roughly four blocks of Center Street plus part of University Avenue. Work here can require a Certificate of Appropriateness before a permit is issued.
Riverbottoms, Rivergrove, and Riverside sit near the Provo River. The city's 100 foot buffer from the high point of the river bank and its floodplain development permit are the first questions to answer.
Lakeview North and South, Fort Utah, Provo Bay, Lakewood, and Sunset run out toward Utah Lake. Shallow groundwater, flood mapping, and liquefaction potential drive foundation and site costs.
Grandview North and South, North Park, Carterville, and Brickyard are largely built out mid century and later housing, where the work is usually remodeling, additions, and basement finishing.
Design criteria
These come from the city's own published design criteria. They are worth seeing before you fall in love with a plan set drawn somewhere else.
This is the expensive one. It means engineered lateral systems, shear wall schedules, holdowns, and heavier connection hardware. D2 is the residential code's category, so it is the number that governs a house. Commercial buildings are designed under a different code whose seismic category is set per site, but the ground is the same ground: assume engineered lateral work either way.
Straightforward, but it sizes roof framing and it is a real difference from a plan set drawn for a milder climate.
Drives fastening, sheathing, and connection detail, and it matters most on tall walls, large openings, and covered outdoor structures.
Footings go below it. That is a fixed cost on every foundation, every porch pier, and every piece of hardscape that needs to not move.
Every service, in Provo
Blackbird groups ten services under plan, build, and improve. Because most of eastern Provo is already built out, a lot of Provo work starts in the improve group. The planning services are what keep it from going sideways.
Feasibility, preliminary scope, and a plan for the job before anyone draws it.
A line-item budget for Provo labor, materials, and site work, written before you commit.
An independent set of eyes on your plans, your bids, and your builder. No hammers, just your side of the table.
Design, budget, permitting, engineering, and construction under one contract and one point of blame.
Ground-up custom homes on Provo lots, priced against the site before the drawings are finished.
Office and retail build-outs, renovations, and expansions for Provo businesses and property owners.
Apartments, townhomes, and condominiums, from feasibility through certificate of occupancy.
Whole-home renovations, additions, and structural changes to Provo houses, roughly half of which were built before 1980 and were added onto at least once already.
Bedrooms, baths, kitchens, theaters, and gyms in space you already own.
Covered patios, porches, decks, outdoor kitchens, and the grading and drainage that make a yard work.
Recent work
These are Provo projects. A whole home renovation and addition taken down to a full re-clad and re-roof, with new windows throughout, a rear addition with a covered porch and second floor deck, and a gut of the kitchen, living spaces, baths, and bedrooms.
Questions
Nearby
Provo is home base, and Blackbird works across Utah County from here. Each of these cities permits, waters, and powers a job differently.
Mid-century housing built on former orchard ground, now deep into its second round of major renovation.
Building in Orem →A pioneer-era downtown core, plus fast subdivision growth out toward the valley floor.
Building in Springville →City owned power, citywide pressurized irrigation, and real canyon wind at the mouth of US-6.
Building in Spanish Fork →One acre base density, a bench built on debris flow fans, and the CE-1 critical environment zone.
Building in Mapleton →A city that barely existed in 2000. Almost entirely new construction, and every sprinkler on culinary water.
Building in Eagle Mountain →A remodel, an addition, a basement, a commercial build-out, or a house on a lot you have not bought yet. The first conversation is free and it is with Danny.
Or call or text (801) 735-7186