Examples of Excellence - Taos County Judicial Complex

By Richard Metcalf / Albuquerque Journal

12/12/11

The dramatic face-lift of a sports mecca and a “game changer” for the West Side and Rio Rancho were the top projects of 2011 at this year’s annual Awards of Excellence by the New Mexico chapter of NAIOP, the commercial real estate development association.
 
The renovation of University of New Mexico Arena — better known as the Pit — won the NAIOP Chairman’s Award, while the new 375,000-square-foot Presbyterian Rust Medical Center and the Rust family won the Vision Award.
 
The two projects, which pumped a combined $225 million into the economy, were among 13 projects recognized at Friday’s luncheon attended by 500 at the Albuquerque Marriott.
 
The theme for the awards program was inspired by the 2009 movie “The Hangover” about bachelor party high jinks and their aftermath, only that the movie’s missing groom and his hapless buddies are recast as real estate developers trying to figure out what happened to the economy.
 
“After too many years of bad news and few deals, it’s an opportunity to poke some fun at the economy, the industry and ourselves,” NAIOP President Lynne Andersen said.
 
The Pit renovation, which included an expansion of meeting and special event space, brought the 45-year-old venue up to contemporary standards of a top-notch arena, according to judges. It also put all the support functions for UNM’s men’s and women’s basketball programs under one roof.
 
Owned by UNM, the project team included Flintco West Inc., contractor; Molzen-Corbin and Associates and Sink Combs Dethlefs, architects; Chavez-Grieves Consulting Engineers Inc. and Bridgers & Paxton, engineers.
 
Built in an area considered underserved by the health care industry, Presbyterian Rust Medical Center was designed around the concepts of expandability, “off-stage areas” for staff only and “on-stage areas” for public interaction, and decentralized nursing on patient floors.
 
Built in 18 months — the fast track for a project of its size and scope — Rust Medical Center is also a legacy of Jack and Donna Rust and their children, whose donation of $10 million to the project was described as “one of the largest individual donations in the history of New Mexico.”
 
Built by Presbyterian Healthcare Services, the project’s team included McCarthy Building Cos. and Klinger Constructors, general contractors; Dekker Perich Sabatini, architect; Bohannon Huston Inc., Dekker Perich Sabatini, Bridgers & Paxton Consulting Engineers, Yearout Mechanical, engineering.
 
NAIOP received 75 entries for this year’s Awards of Excellence, nine more than in 2010 and 15 more than 2009. Competition was open to projects completed between Jan. 1, 2009, and Sept. 1, 2011, that had not won a NAIOP award in the past.
 
Here are the other winners by category:
 
Office: The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement office building at Mesa del Sol commissioned by the General Services Administration and developed privately. The roughly 72,000-square-foot is a mix of sturdiness and aesthetics.
 
Owner: Seven Properties LLP. General contractor: Dura Bilt Products Inc. Architect: Dura Bilt. Engineers: Huitt-Zollars Inc.
 
Industrial: No award (not enough entries).
 
Retail: The 46,000-square-foot Rio Rancho Premiere Cinema opened with 14 screens and the capacity for 2,850 moviegoers, with room to expand on its 6.8-acre site. For the first time since 1998, when the city’s first and only theater closed, Rio Rancho residents no longer have to leave town to see a movie.
 
Owner: RR Premiere Realty LP. Contractor: Wilger Enterprises. Architect: Modulus Architects. Engineers: Walla Engineering.
 
Civic/public: The 110,000-square-foot Taos County Judicial Complex links three two-story buildings organized around a central courtyard. The building, which incorporates traditional New Mexico architectural details like portals and corbels, has a fully integrated facility management system.
 
Owner: Taos County. Contractor: HB Construction. Architect: AECOM.
 
Residential: Silver Gardens Apartments, across from the Alvarado Transportation Center in Downtown, sets the bar high for green building with a design to the standards of LEED platinum certification. A major challenge at the front end was cleaning up the former Greyhound bus station site.
 
Owner: Silver Gardens I LLC (Romero Rose and Supportive Housing Coalition of New Mexico). Contractor: Gerald Martin. Architect: Claudio Vigil Architect and Oz Architects. Engineers: Isaacson & Arfman, Applied Engineering & Survey Inc.
 
Renovation/remodel: The historic renovation of the shuttered Memorial Hospital, built in 1926, into Hotel Parq Central involved three buildings with a total of 37,000 square feet of space. A fourth casita building was added at the 2.3-acre site in EDo (east of Downtown).
 
Owner: Memorial Ventures. Contractor: Klinger Constructors. Architect: Studio Southwest Architects. Engineers: Walla Engineering.
 
Restaurant: The interior design of Jazzbah Restaurant incorporates functionality and style to produce an elegant and inviting ambience. Jazzbah occupies the space, empty for most of the past eight years, at the corner of Second and Gold in Downtown’s theater block.
 
Owner: Don Putz of Jazzbah LLC. Contractor: AIC General Contractors. Architect: Lee Gamelsky. Designer: Studio Hill Design.
 
Religious: Five years in the making, the new nearly 1,500-seat sanctuary of Rio Rancho’s Church of the Incarnation has a ceiling that soars 42 feet high. Designed in classic Romanesque style with a cruciform layout, the sanctuary is filled with natural light from clerestory windows.
 
Owner: Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Contractor: Britton Construction. Architect: Dorman and Breen Architects. Engineers: DRB Electric, D. Mark Goodwin & Associates, Red Mountain.
 
Medical: The 16,300-square-foot Southwest Mesa Family Clinic is a “one-stop clinic” with a radiology suite, pharmacy, blood lab and procedure room at Central and Unser NW. It is designed to meet the standards of LEED silver certification.
 
Owner: University of New Mexico Hospital. Contractor: Klinger Constructors. Architect: Fanning-Bard-Tatum Architects. Engineers: Walla Engineering.
 
Education K-12: The two-story, 46,894-square-foot nex+Gen Academy was built on the campus of Del Norte High School, which in itself presented the challenge of minimizing disruptions to access to school facilities while construction was under way.
 
Owner: Albuquerque Public Schools. Contractor: AIC General Contractor. Architect: Dekker Perich Sabatini. Engineers: Dekker firm, Bridgers & Paxton.
 
Education post-secondary: CNM’s multistory 66,000-square-foot instructional building is the first structure on its 40-acre campus at Rio Rancho’s City Center. Delivered at $2 million under budget, the building is designed to meet the standards of LEED gold certification.
 
Owner: Central New Mexico Community College. Contractor: Gerald Martin. Architect: SMPC Architects.
 
Engineers: Chavez-Grieves, Bridgers & Paxton, Bohannon Huston. Planner: Consensus Planning.
 
Education remodel: The renovation and expansion of Connor Hall on the Santa Fe campus of the New Mexico School for the Deaf brought back to life an historic Pueblo Revival-style building built in 1928 as a dormitory.
 
Owner: N.M. School for the Deaf. Contractor: Brycon Construction. Architect: Studio Southwest Architects. Engineers: Walla Engineering.