SITE SANTA FE | Santa Fe, New Mexico | 2017

Architects: SHoP Architects 
Client: SITE Santa Fe Contemporary Arts 
General Contractor: Sarcon Construction Corporation 
Photographers: Photos of SITE © Jeff Goldberg/Esto

SHoP designed a comprehensive renovation and expansion of the exhibition and support spaces at SITE Santa Fe, one of the leading contemporary art institutions in the Southwest. Behind the scenes, the project includes action to modernize environmental systems, provide the staff with new administrative and educational facilities, and streamline the handling and care for art in a reconfigured back-of-house. We are also expanding their existing building to provide several new galleries, a new public entry and gathering spaces indoors and out, as well as a new treatment for the building’s exterior. The folded, perforated aluminum system defining the exterior of the building was carefully calibrated to be appropriate both for SITE’s immediate context in an old railyard, as well as in contrast to the traditional construction methods and effects that prevail in the surrounding cityscape. The character of the new and renovated interior spaces was of particular concern for this project. SITE’s work as an innovative arts institution was at times restricted by the nature of their current building, a repurposed former beer warehouse. The minimal upgrades and interventions they had performed over the last twenty years to make it a home for art had become part of their story, but the building nonetheless still posed significant limitations. As the organization matured, SITE was faced with the profound logistical demands relating to art handling and display that are common to museums everywhere. By engaging fully with SITE’s administration and staff in an efficient process of discovery, we were able to develop a physical and material strategy for meeting their staging and support needs, while also designing new and renovated gallery spaces that meet the demands of their expanding audience. The exuberant new exterior of the building is intended to signal a welcoming gesture to the community while also serving as an iconic new presence for the institution as it moves forward.