At the U. of New Mexico, a Predock Building Worth the Wait

U of New Mexico architecture building The U. of New Mexico’s new architecture-school building overlooks Central Avenue — old Route 66. (Chronicle photographs by Lawrence Biemiller)

Albuquerque — The adobe-like walls of Antoine Predock’s new building for the University of New Mexico’s architecture school loom serenely over the gaudy 1960s streetscape of old Route 66 here in Albuquerque. In fact, the building fits the New Mexico landscape so well that at first I almost missed it. Unlike the neighborhood’s tarted-up restaurants and motels, it does nothing to call attention to itself. It’s as big, as timeless, and as self-assured as a geological feature, like the impressive La Bajada escarpment between here and Santa Fe.

The west entrance.

But when you do take a good look at it, the $22-million building is a beauty. The exterior, part concrete and part glass, is impassive and inscrutable — especially where it faces Central Avenue, old Route 66. That facade is so sculptural that it doesn’t even have an entrance. It doesn’t need one, though — students can enter at either end, or from the side facing the campus, where a broad ramp of stairs leads down into a sunken, protected courtyard in the middle of the building.

Once you get inside the 104,000-square-foot structure, called George Pearl Hall, you start to appreciate how inventive and engaging it is. The two ends support a system of giant trusses, 90 feet long, that lift the four-story-high, glass-walled middle of the building above the courtyard below. Carrying the weight of the building on the trusses allows for wide-open spaces within: The second level is a vast studio space for undergraduate architecture students, the third level is a mezzanine with studios for graduate students, and the fourth level is a fine-arts library. The second and third levels overlook a broad main-level corridor — known as the bridge, because it crosses above the courtyard — that has rotating wall panels on which projects can be displayed. The school uses the corridor for critiques, so that students’ projects are discussed in a public setting, with passersby looking on and maybe stopping to listen in.

The sunken courtyard.

In fact, the building is a kind of monument to openness. You can see it in the way the concrete walls on the main facade pull apart to reveal the glass within, and in the way the staircase and elevator lobbies at the west end of the building overlook both its gallery space and the Frontier Restaurant across the street. On the campus side, another glass wall shows off the truss system. Roger L. Schluntz, the dean of architecture and planning, says the aim of the design was to let everyone see what everyone else is doing — and he says the quality of students’ work has improved markedly since the school moved in.

The building’s details are also entertaining. Many of the structural and mechanical systems were left visible and function as ornament. A giant air-handling duct runs along the library ceiling, for instance, and glass panels beside the elevator doors let users watch the cabs rise and fall. An almost-all-red men’s room on the lower level is a standout, just because it’s fun.

The building was a long time in the making. Mr. Predock’s firm was selected in a 2000 competition, but assembling the necessary funds to start construction took some time — classes didn’t move to the building until early this year. Clearly the result justifies the wait. —Lawrence Biemiller

U of New Mexico architecture building George Pearl Hall from the southwest. It was intended, in part, to give the university a new presence on Central Avenue.

U of New Mexico architecture building The building from the southeast. Pedestrians can walk around it or through it.

U of New Mexico architecture building The upper level of a parking structure behind the building affords a good view of the massive trusses that carry its middle section over its sunken courtyard.

U of New Mexico architecture building A large, undisguised air-handling duct hangs below the ceiling of the top-floor library.

U of New Mexico architecture building The truss system is very much in evidence in the third-level graduate-student studios.

U of New Mexico architecture building A stairwell leads down from the graduate-student studios to the undergraduate studios. Two levels down is the corridor known as the bridge.

U of New Mexico architecture building The bridge functions as an ordinary corridor, letting pedestrians pass through the building.

U of New Mexico architecture building Students can also tack their projects up on rotating wall panels on the bridge, and classmates can gather for critiques.