Mayor Delivering State of the City Today From Building
The Santa Fe Community Convention Center is on the brink of being unveiled.
The $61 million building won’t fully open until later this month, but locals can catch their first glimpse of its interior today when Mayor David Coss gives his State of the City address in the convention center lobby.
“We really wanted it to be Santa Fe, and it is. We accomplished that,” said Darlene Griego, convention center business manager. “Everywhere we could, we used local people for this project.”
Griego took the Journal on a tour of the convention center Tuesday morning, as dozens of workers busily put finishing touches on the 72,000-square-foot building. Later that afternoon, Santa Fe-based members of the state Legislature also toured the site.
“I think for the majority of the city ... this is another place for the special moments of their lives,” Griego said.
Features of the convention center’s “Main Building” include the 18,000-squarefoot Sweeney Ballroom, seven meeting rooms, three kitchens and a large food preparation area.
The adjoining two-story “Community Building” has a business center with space for event planners, a box office and a 2,400-squarefoot gallery designed to be a showcase for local, largely unknown artists.
Also housed in the Commu- nity Building is the Tesuque Boardroom, a “really special space” with wood floors and vigas, a big-screen television and wrap-around terrace. Nearby are the simpler Ohkay Owingeh, Nambé and Pojoaque rooms, divided by partitions that can be opened and closed depending on the amount of space needed for a particular event.
Just about every inch of the convention center can be rented out, and business has been brisk, Griego said.
Flooring in the building includes pink tiles, stained concrete and wood, though it’s the carpet that ranks among the building’s most expensive items, according to Griego.
Created by a Denverbased interior designer, the “Native-American-like” fabrics — found in multiple patterns and colors over several rooms — cost $200,000 in the ballroom alone, she said.
Other features in the convention center, which is aiming for silver LEED certification, a rating system for sustainable building, include vigas made from wood rescued from forest fires, “stateof-the-art” technology and abundant restrooms.
Some $400,000 worth of art has been bought to decorate the premises, though none of it has been installed yet.
There’s no public space inside the building — a room where a downtown worker or tourist could, say, relax with a cup of coffee or eat lunch — but there will be some outdoor space available for everyday use.
Landscaping is still mostly incomplete, though plans call for park-like nooks and benches, Griego said. An acequia, albeit one that will only be filled with rainwater, will also run through the property. It’s a nod to archeological evidence that an acequia previously existed on the site, Griego said.
The Sweeney Ballroom will get a test run this weekend, with a private Fiesta de Santa Fe dinner Friday and the Grand Baile Saturday.
Full occupancy and a ribbon-cutting is slated for Sept. 25. The city then hosts the Santa Fe International Conference on Creative Tourism from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2.
“Now we’re on to the next challenge: filling it,” Griego said.
State of the City
WHAT: Annual speech by Mayor David Coss
WHEN: 6 p.m. today
WHERE: Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 Marcy St.
ENTER: The Marcy Street entrance; handicappedaccessible entrance on the Grant Street side
