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FeedConvention Center Design Adds to Downtown Élan
Convention centers often focus too much on convention, packing hundreds of bodies into a building, and not enough on center, or the building itself, which can turn out to be an eyesore. Not so for the new Santa Fe Community Convention Center. Designed by local, award-winning Spears Architects with Fentress Architects of Denver, the building was inspired by our Spanish Colonial roots, specifically 16th-century Mexican missions. “The form of it, with the courtyard and the zaguán and the portals to the street’s edge, is really Spanish Colonial, which goes back hundreds of years,” says Beverley Spears, director of Spears Architects. “The detailing is Pueblo Revival—the deeply recessed windows, the exposed lintels.”
Several upstairs terraces, which overlook the street and the main courtyard, join a balcony overlook from the second floor to the lobby to create a “rich spatial relationship” throughout the building, says Spears. Although the structure occupies most of a city block, there’s a shortcut for pedestrians: Walk through the main zaguán, or entryway, into the courtyard and connect to the Paseo portal, which joins Marcy Street to Federal Place. “The design reflects the best of Santa Fe’s architectural heritage—a dynamic relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces, an adobe look and feel, and simple elegant interiors brought to life by sunlight and shadow,” says Spears.
Spears designed the building with sustainability in mind, naming a variety of progressive resources used: “Underground cisterns capturing rainwater, the light-colored, reflective roof, the abundant insulation, the energy-saving heating and cooling equipment, and the nontoxic materials. A few visible items are the plants and planters on the roof terrace, the generally xeric plantings, and the bicycle racks.” LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, this center is green building at its finest.
