Shaping an Exemplary New Community | Daybreak, Utah

Envisioned as a new community of 60,000 people, Daybreak was conceived as a remarkable new city. Despite concern from production builders, the Daybreak leadership team aimed to capture the imagination of what a new community could be. The local builders were skeptical, saying: “This will never work.” Despite the best efforts of the development team, when the first homes came out of the ground, the development team realized they had a problem: The architecture was unremarkable.

Daybreak leadership called the UDA team for help in shaping more enchanting neighborhoods worthy of national recognition. When UDA arrived, the local home builders were eager for guidance. The UDA team joined them in Salt Lake City, toured the historic districts, coordinated with builders, and assisted the development team in coalescing a vision for a new direction. UDA’s first Pattern Book gave the builders a clear vision and instructions on how to build great architecture, streets, and neighborhoods. After five Pattern Books, Daybreak has become a great city.

In the early 2020s, Daybreak was recognized as one of the nation’s best-selling communities, gaining national attention for design. Daybreak’s fifteen neighborhoods are visited by regional city councils, planning commissions, and national developers looking to learn how to build memorable cities on a broad scale. Daybreak has been recognized as one of the nation’s most innovative new communities.