‘CREATING A DUAL COUNTY CAMPUS’
New administrative complex expected to be open by August/September next year
The demolition of the old county courthouse at Grant Avenue and Griffin Street downtown is almost complete, making way for a new Santa Fe County administrative complex expected to be open by this time next year.
The razing is the beginning of a two-part, $27.9 million project that also includes the restoration of the current administrative building, known for its classic Santa Fe-style portal, at 102 Grant Ave., two blocks away.
The County Commission in August awarded a design-build contract to Jaynes Corporation, of Albuquerque, and Albuquerquebased Studio Southwest Architects, which has an office in Santa Fe.
“It makes for a cleaner process,” Deputy County Manager Tony Flores said of the design-build approach. “Under a design-build process, we have more control over how the building gets built. And it’s a way to lock in a firm price, reducing the number of change orders and it helps us with timeliness. We have more control over the project, rather than consultants and contractors telling us what we need.”
Flores is serving as project manager, a role he also played with the construction of the Mountain Valley Regional Health Center in Edgewood. He said the new
two-story, 62,000-squarefoot building is expected to be finished by August or September of next year. It will house offices most frequently accessed by the public, including the offices of the county’s assessor, treasurer and clerk.
The existing county building will be used by the county manager, and the finance, human resources and legal departments, as well as house office space for county commissioners. Restoration of that building is expected to be completed by March 2020.
The county administrative complex “will allow Santa Fe County to consolidate county services into a central building,” county documents say. “This will create a dual county campus in two buildings, located within blocks of each other in downtown Santa Fe, with onsite public parking.”
Keeping the county administrative offices downtown was an important consideration. County officials noted proximity to the New Mexico Association of Counties and New Mexico Finance Authority offices.
“The county’s presence in downtown Santa Fe makes county functions accessible to the public, enables the public to accomplish multiple tasks in a single trip, and helps keep downtown Santa Fe relevant to the needs of Santa Fe residents,” county documents say.
Most of the onsite parking will be located at the new complex, which is designed to have 200 parking spaces on two levels, one of them underground. Residents doing business at the new county building will be able to access parking from Grant Avenue. Employee parking will be on the lower level with the entrance on Griffin Street.
Flores said a significant difference in elevation at the two entrances means the county doesn’t have to excavate very deep. “We’re taking advantage of that so we don’t have to dig down,” he said.
The lot abuts property occupied by the First Presbyterian Church, touted as the oldest continuing protestant church in New Mexico territory. The new complex is being built on property once owned by the church.
Local history
According to church documentation, Rev. David McFarlane opened a school nearby soon after he arrived as the church’s first minister in 1866. Women at the church raised $600 to pay the salary of a teacher and a “free school” was established.
Years later, the school was moved to a site north of the current church and became the Santa Fe Industrial Boarding School for Mexican Girls. The school later became known as the Allison School, named for the woman who operated the boarding school for 22 years, and years after that it was combined with the Mary James Missionary Boarding School for Boys to become the Allison-James School. The co-educational junior high boarding school primarily served Hispanic boys and girls.
In 1936, the mission school property was sold to Santa Fe Public Schools. The buildings were torn down and Leah Harvey Junior High was built just north of the church, opening in 1938. Forty years later, the school was remodeled and became the Judge Steve Herrera Judicial Complex until 2013, when a new courthouse bearing the same name was built on Montezuma Avenue.
The county consulted with First Presbyterian Church on the new building.
“The county has been very, very cooperative,” said Rev. Harry Eberts of First Presbyterian. “They’ve listened to our concerns. We’ve been waiting a long time for this to happen next door. We always want to be good neighbors and we have been shown by the county that they want to be good neighbors, so we’re very grateful for that.”
The church’s concerns mostly had to do with parking.
“That’s been a concern probably since the 1930s,” he said, noting the time when the property was sold off by the church. “It probably wasn’t recognized back then, but we lost all that parking.”
Complicating matters is that the north wall of the church is right on the property line.
Flores said the county made modifications to its original plan for the parking garage, moving it back about 25 feet and putting in a sidewalk.
Gathering input from the church, the county commission and the others in the community, Flores said the county made additional changes to its original plan. Parking spaces were reduced to make way for a staircase and sidewalk leading to a small park-like area at the apex where Catron and Griffin streets come together, the building was moved back to create greater separation from the church and they “softened the edges” of the Pueblo Revival-style design meant to complement the Santa Fe Community Convention Center across the street.
“We made quite a few changes to design elements for better massing both vertically and horizontally,” he said.
The building is also intended to complement the church next door.
Notably, First Presbyterian’s sanctuary was built in 1939, the same year as the current county building on Grant Avenue. The two buildings were also designed by the same architect, the renowned John Gaw Meem, who is credited with popularizing the Pueblo Revival style.
Back then, there was no Americans with Disabilities Act and the current county administrative building will incorporate what’s necessary for it to be in compliance with the act.
The most noticeable change to the building will be the removal of about 7,800 square feet of space to restore a placita on the side of the building facing Johnson Street, which was part of the original design. It had been expunged when the county expanded the building in the 1970s.
“Now, we’ll have another entrance, a more historic entrance, on Johnson Street with a courtyard that faces the O’Keeffe museum,” Flores said.
The building is considered a good example of a New Dealera design, and is already listed on the State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places.
Funding for the project comes from $25 million in bonds approved by the County Commission in 2015 and capital outlay appropriations.
When it’s all finished, Flores said county constituents will have an attractive, functional and efficient complex they can be proud of.
“I think the public will be pleased because we’ve taken a lot of their comments and integrated them into the project,” Flores said. “I think, at the end of the day, the downtown community and the county as a whole will be very pleased.”