Under plans brought before the Santa Fe Historic Design Review Board on Tuesday, a Rail Runner Express stop in the Santa Fe Railyard would include an information kiosk, sidewalk and raised boarding platform at the historic Santa Fe Depot.
But this being Santa Fe, the H-Board only partially approved the project, postponing a decision on the kiosk amidst concerns about height and design. Approval of an 11-foot Rail Runner sign was also withheld.
“We are very fond of humanscale edifices in Santa Fe,” commented board member Karen Walker on the 11-foot kiosk.
The H-Board did approve the platform and walkway. The Rail Runner is scheduled to begin service in Santa Fe in December.
The plans were reviewed by the H-Board because of the station’s location near the Santa Fe Depot. The Mission Revival structure, built in the 1880s and currently used as a stop for the Santa Fe Southern Railway’s Santa Fe-Lamy train, is registered as a landmark with the city.
The state Department of Transportation wants to build a raised mini-platform on the north end of the existing Santa Fe Depot platform, which will allow for level train boarding as required by the American with Disabilities Act.
Under the approved proposal, the raised platform will be built with old bricks pulled from the existing platform’s deteriorating edge — the edge will be replaced — and will have a 20-foot ramp stretching down from one end. A 4-foot metal handrail — to be either rust or earth-colored, as requested by the H-Board on Tuesday — also will be installed.
A dark brick sidewalk will run along the north side of the Depot from Guadalupe Street to the terminal platform. An 11-foot “Rail Runner” sign, deemed too tall Tuesday by the H-Board, would be located near the sidewalk entrance to the station.
“It’s main purpose is to give somebody at least a sign that they’re getting close to a Rail Runner station,” said project manager Chris Blewett of the Mid-Region Council of Governments.
The kiosk, similar to kiosks at existing Rail Runner stops, would consist of information panels wrapped around a thick central support pole located roughly 30 feet from the south side of the Depot. Plans call for the kiosk to have an 11-foot-2-inch pitched metal roof.
But that height, as well as the design of the pitched roof, described by one H-Board member as “mushroom-like,” were sources of discontentment.
“This would really detract from our landmark building,” Walker said of the height. “It’s really massive.” The pitched roof requires an exception, though nearby buildings, including the Depot and Gross Kelly Warehouse, also have pitched roofs.
But, “we don’t have roofs that shape anywhere in the area,” H-Board member Dan Featheringill said.
He and other members asked the DOT to come back with alternatives, suggesting a more rectangular-shaped roof might be preferable.
The H-Board also asked the state to investigate alternative colors for tactile, ADA compliant strips that will be laid over concrete poured near the edge of the Rail Runner’s tracks. Original DOT plans called for the color to be bright yellow.
