New Mexico State University Devasthali Hall and University Art Museum
Las Cruces, N.M.
Award of Merit
Owner: New Mexico State University
Lead Design Firm: RMKM Architecture
General Contractor: HB Construction Inc.
Civil Engineer: High Mesa Consulting Group
Structural Engineer: RME ABQ Structural Engineers
MEP Engineer: Bridgers & Paxton Consulting Engineers
Landscape Architect: Richard Borkovetz Landscape Architecture
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.
