“This project was really well done in terms of adapting a historic building into an extremely functional building for the school. The historic and industrial scale was very competently handled and fit the use beautifully.”
— Christiana Moss, FAIA
Location Santa Fe, NM
Client New Mexico School for the Arts
Architect Lake|Flato Architects in collaboration with Studio Southwest Architects
Design Team Lake|Flato Architects: Brandi Rickels, AIA; Greg Papay, FAIA; Clay Cottingham, AIA; Seema Kairam; Serena Ching; Wo Wu. Studio Southwest Architects: Steven M. Osborn; Robert G Heiser, AIA
Contractor Klinger Constructors
Civil Engineer Bohannan Huston
MEP Engineer BG Buildingworks
Structural Engineer Luchini Trujillo Structural Engineers
Landscape Architect Surroundings Studio
Located where Santa Fe’s historic core meets the bohemian Railyard District, a collection of existing commercial buildings was repurposed to provide dedicated creative spaces for students to practice drama, music, dance, visual arts, and creative writing. A lumberyard drive-through became the school’s paseo, the organizing circulation path that connects classrooms and studios. A salmon-colored brick structure, formerly the lumberyard office, hosts visual art exhibitions. Art studios lie north of the paseo, spilling out onto an art porch and harnessing the northern light. Music studios occupy the shell of a tilt-wall building, which augments the spaces’ acoustical properties, while dance and drama spaces cohabit in the stucco-clad World Market building, a former retail center embellished with natural light and acoustic isolation.