The 60,000-sq-ft facility for the New Mexico State University Art Dept. and University Art Museum in Las Cruces honors a local family of arts supporters. The $18-million stone-clad building features indoor and outdoor studios for woodworking, painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, ceramics and jewelry making. Completed in September 2019, the LEED Silver-targeted facility also has an art gallery, conservation facilities, exhibit space and a museum that houses the country’s largest collection of Mexican retablos, or devotional paintings.

A two-phase BIM-based plan helped meet challenges such as a fall semester move-in deadline and working on an active campus next to a busy roadway. The team completed classroom spaces for the students, then erected temporary walls so the museum could be finished. To execute utility tie-ins, ground penetrating radar facilitated rerouting of the chilled water and steam lines from the university’s central plant.

Back to Annual Awards Honor a Diverse Array of Projects