Plans for The Point in Lehi are unveiled

While Gehry was developing ideas for the eco-friendly, 85-acre development, he said Andersen's young son followed suit and was soon dreaming up ideas out of blocks he said were eerily similar to the Robie House in Chicago designed by the late Frank Lloyd Wright.

In Gehry's eyes, such youthful ambition is just as readily displayed by the 29-year-old Andersen, whom he called a young man with will, resources and a piece of land who wants to do something special.

"For me, it's very exciting to be working with somebody that's optimistic," Gehry said.

Wednesday, Gehry and Andersen teamed up at the Flash Factory, home of the Utah Flash, to unveil final plans for the shape of the Lehi development. Andersen also announced the development will formally be called The Point, saying it's difficult to name anything that you'll have to live with for the rest of your life.

"The Point is not a crazy name, out of left field," he said. "But it keeps very true to our area ... we believe we should be true to that."

Development plans for the site, which sits just south of Point of the Mountain on the east side of I-15, call for more than 1 million square feet of retail space, nearly 2,500 residential units and a man-made lake that will host water sporting events. The project will feature an arena to house the Utah Flash as well as a 450-foot-tall, five-star hotel. The residential units will surround the lake, which will then surround a central downtown shopping area.

"The final product should look very unique to this region," Gehry said. "It won't copy the architecture of this region, it will be a good neighbor, I hope. It won't demean the architecture, it will be its own thing."

Inspiration for the development has come from many aspects of Utah's unique landscape, Andersen said. Influences for some of the buildings came from the natural arches of southern Utah, while the roof line of the arena will partially resemble Mount Timpanogos.

"Many of the things that I personally believed, Frank actually was able to grasp and say, these are the best possible things about our state — the things we love," Andersen said. "And he was able to take those and incorporate those into, of course, his own style."

Like cooling a teepee, Gehry said, he cools his own home in Santa Monica, Calif., by opening a skylight in his roof to let out warm air. The Point development's unique designs will allow for similarly simple and efficient heating and cooling techniques as well as harness solar, wind and geothermal energy.

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