ABQ: Copper Square

ALBUQUERQUE

Old El Fidel Hotel/Copper Square

View the drawings of Copper Square.


Copper Square is an office complex converted from the El Fidel Hotel. The building has purchased in the mid-2000's with the intention of being upgraded from an office complex into modern high-tech office condos. However, the developer Vincent Garcia was later convicted of fraud and the building went into foreclosure.

The building is currently for sale.


According to the Albuquerque Journal in 2010:

While he was sucking cash out of some $24 million in construction loans intended for projects such as the mixed-use Anasazi Downtown and Copper Square, developer Vincent J. Garcia was living the life of a "high roller," according to court documents.

He went to Mexico every other month. He bragged about his trips there and elsewhere, like the Las Vegas trip to see Oscar de la Hoya in a boxing match. According to statements from four confidential witnesses, his office manager would pull money from one or another loan account before he left on a trip, and at least one source believed the loans were probably his sole source of income.

It got so bad, one source told agents, that one of Vincent Garcia's sons, Josh Garcia, accused him of being a crook and dropped out of a condominium project he was involved in with his father.

To get the draws on their construction loans, the Garcias created fake invoices themselves, the affidavits say, but also "coerced" subcontractors to create fake invoices for them. Another tactic, they say, was to submit legitimate subcontractor invoices but pocket the money and tell the subs that the bank had rejected the subcontractors' bills.

 

Anasazi and Copper Square were 75 percent to 85 percent complete when work ground to a halt.

History from Zia Rising Construction Management:

Originally designed and built in 1931 as the El Fidel Hotel, the building comprised a basement and five additional levels. The entrance level served as the hotel lobby, kitchen, dining room and coffee shop, with additional offices and retail space. Upper levels housed guest rooms and meeting rooms. The basement was devoted to laundry, boilers and storage areas.

Forum Limited purchased the property in 1979 from the Fidel family, and in 1981 began renovation to create the current Copper Square. Because of the historic nature of the building, 75% of the building exterior was restored to its original condition. The building frontage on both 5th Street and Copper Avenue retained the 1930's era facade. The exterior remodeling focused on the creation of a five-story garden atrium in the southwest corner of the building, replacing the former ballroom.

 

The resulting conversion created a five-story atrium office building with basement area. The gross building area with The Copper Square is 99,900 square feet; net rentable area is 67,784 square feet; and usable area is 58,941 square feet. Each office floor has 12,736 square feet of rentable space, and forms an "L" shape facing the atrium with the common corridors being open balconies.

 

Picture of the original hotel.

ABQ: SEFT 1

ALBUQUERQUE

SEFT 1

In the late 1990s Mexico privatized its national rail system. The system was reorganized to allow private companies to set up freight shipping connecting with the United States and Canada under NAFTA. It's too early to know whether the new arrangement is working well for rail shipments. The northern part of the country has had better success, while the hurricane damaged south is lagging behind.

However, the greatest impact of the privatization has been to end rail passenger service for most of the country. In 1997, except for some small tourist lines, such as viewing Copper Canyon, service for people ended. In 2008 a commuter rail was established running into Mexico City. But the rest of the country remains without.

Two artists decided to travel the abandoned railways to document the new ruins, isolated towns and villages, and collect artifacts. A pickup truck was created that could travel on roads or railroad tracks.

Information about the project is downloaded to their website SEFT 1.

They drove the SEFT 1 vehicle recently across the border to where it is currently on display at the Albuquerque museum. The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) also participated in the museum project.



From UTEP:

The SEFT -1 (SEFT is an acronym for the Spanish Sonda de Exploración Ferroviaria Tripulada or Manned Railway Exploration Probe) is a trans-disciplinary project by artists Ivan Puig and Andrés Padilla Domene. Its core object is a futuristic, artist-designed vehicle that is equipped to move on both land and rail. Puig and Padilla Domene traveled abandoned railways throughout Mexico in this exploratory probe, using photography, video, audio and text to record contemporary landscapes, infrastructure and inhabitants to create a futuristic exploration of Mexico’s past. The information recorded is continuously uploaded to the project´s web page www.seft1.com, where the public can follow the trajectory of the probe and view the images, videos and artifacts collected on its journey.

The exhibition of the SEFT-1 at UTEP will encompass two museums, the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts and UTEP’s Centennial Museum. ForISEA2012 (see below), Puig and Padilla Domene will make a historic journey in the SEFT-1 that takes them from the U.S.-Mexico border to the city of Albuquerque where the car itself will be exhibited at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, with a complementary exhibition at 516 Gallery in downtown Albuquerque.

The exhibition of SEFT-1 at UTEP is in conjunction with the Desert Initiative (DI) and with the annual meeting of International for Society for Electronic Arts (ISEA).

 

DI is a consortium of art museums in the Southwest that are coordinating new, interdisciplinary explorations of the desert to take place in the Fall2012-Spring 2013. The partnering museums include Phoenix Art Museum, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Santa Fe Art Institute, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and Arizona State University Art Museum, which is the administrative and coordinating hub of the DI, amongst many others. ISEA is an international nonprofit organization fostering interdisciplinary academic discourse and exchange among culturally diverse organizations and individuals working with art, science and technology, and draws scores of emerging and established international artists to its annual conference. In 2011 it was held in Istanbul and in 2010 near Berlin. In 2012 University of New Mexico in Albuquerque will host the conference from September 17-22. UTEP is the only venue in Texas invited to participate in either of these initiatives, both of which will generate additional opportunities to expand our audience, and to connect with both the border and the world.

ABQ: SnapSpace

ALBUQUERQUE

SnapSpace

Photo journal of the SnapSpace landscape.

On the edge of the Raynolds Addition and Barelas neighborhoods near the zoo in Downtown, local developers Sean Gilligan and Marilyn Keller are trying a new concept in Albuquerque home building--"stick-built" modular homes that can be moved to other locations throughout the state.

The concept embraces both green building and simplified compact living. They have a model home on Iron that is less than 900 SF. Which means that more time and attention is spent on outdoor living. The photo journal at the top of the page shows their attention to the details of creating an urban sanctuary landscape, which includes 3 separate outdoor decks, fire pits and BBQ, a pond and a garden.

The enclosed yard is reminiscent of the Medieval concept of a Hortus Conclusus, literally a walled garden that served as a contemplative outdoor room within the larger garden.


Explains Landscape Design + More--Hortus Conclusus is the archetype of an enclosed garden.  A walled garden, one with a fenced enclosure, became synonymous with the term “garden” in medieval times.  Its nomenclature, “hortus conclusus,” is believed to originate from King Solomon’s “Song of Songs” 4:12 "Hortus conclusus soror mea, sponsa, hortus conclusus, fons signatus" ("A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up.")

The enclosed garden was a common setting for images of the Virgin Mary in medieval artwork.

In secular terms the garden became a symbol of earthly love, typified by Guillaume de Llorris 13^th century poem the Roman de la Rose, an allegory of man and an enclosed garden. In this walled garden, the interior represents romance, while the exterior is emblematic of everyday life.

Artificial nature is the basis for the hortus conclusus - shutting the space off from the outside world, creating an image of an inner paradise. One could begin to suggest that this archetype has been translated into present day public pocket parks in urban centers. A more private example would be the jewel box size gardens behind brownstone buildings - is an oasis, a refuge of peace and tranquility among the chaos within the urban infrastructure.




Information about SnapSpace:


SG Properties is the sales representatives for SnapSpace NM, LLC.  We build movable, modular, green homes for delivery throughout the state.  These homes are "stick built" at our factory yard in Albuquerque and moved to your lot.  

Models:  We currently have one model for sale.  We have schematic designs for a number of other models and are in the process of completing the working drawings and pricing them.  The current model can be seen at 1104 Iron SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102.

 

Process:  Our homes are built in our factory yard and then shipped to your lot.   Customers either pay for their unit with cash or with financing.  Once the home is finished it is shipped to your lot for installation on your foundation.

 

Find Out More About SnapSpace:  Please call or email us if you have questions, want additional information, or would like to schedule a tour of our model.  Be prepared to be impressed.  
 

Sean Gilligan

SG Properties. Qualifying Broker

Phone  505.440.5814

Fax  866.630.6946

Email  sean@sgproperties.biz

 

ABQ: Gold Building

ALBUQUERQUE

Gold Building (also known as New Mexico Bank & Trust)

Wikipedia:

The Bank of New Mexico Building, as it was originally known, was built on the site of the old Wright's Trading Post building at Fourth and Gold.The building was dedicated in a ceremony featuring Native American dancers and a speech by a sombrero-wearing Winthrop Rockefeller, who was one of the original owners.

The building is rectangular in plan and sits on a larger one-story base. The east and west walls of the Gold Building are windowless expanses of reddish brick, much like the neighboring Simms Building. The north facade is clad in dark glass that neatly reflects the image of the Bank of Albuquerque Tower a few blocks away. The south elevation, also glass, is punctuated by a protruding brick-faced elevator shaft. The architects were W.C. Kruger & Associates.

 

EMPORIS:

The Gold Building is a modernist high-rise.

Technical Data

Height (tip)

203.41 ft

Height (architectural)

203.41 ft

Height (roof)

203.41 ft

Floors (above ground)

14

Construction start

1967

Construction end

1968

ABQ: Alvarado

ALBUQUERQUE

Alvarado Transportation Center

See the Photo Journal of Downtown Drawings.


Wikipedia:

Albuquerque's first train station, a small railroad depot, opened on the site of the current ATC in the 1880s. With increasing demand for a larger facility, the Alvarado Hotel, a Mission Revival-style building which served as one of the many Harvey Houses along the train route, was constructed on the site in the 1902. Santa Fe Railroad architect Charles Whittlesey designed the building, and Mary Colter designed the interior of the hotel. The hotel was named for Hernando de Alvarado of the 1540 Francisco Vázquez de Coronado Expedition. Just south of the hotel a train station was constructed, also in the Mission Revival style and with a large, distinctive tower.

The Alvarado Hotel was renowned for its luxury, but by the mid-20th century, with the decline in railroad travel in the United States, the hotel fell on hard times and was demolished in 1970. The site remained a dirt parking lot for many years. In 1993, the Albuquerque train station burned down, and Amtrak used a small facility on the site as the train station.

The current ATC complex was constructed in the 2000s. The first phase of the project was completed in 2002 to serve ABQRide. The second phase, completed in 2006, added facilities for Amtrak, Greyhound Lines, and the New Mexico Rail Runner Express commuter rail line. The ATC was designed to be reminiscent of the old buildings, with many architectural elements borrowed from the Alvarado Hotel and the former train station.
 

 

AMTRAK: The Alvarado Station is served by the Southwest Chief.

Take in the Grandeur of the American West on an Adventure.

The Amtrak Southwest Chief runs daily between Chicago and Los Angeles, through the vast expanse of the fabled American West.

You'll be mesmerized by this region's beauty and allure. We'll take you across the mighty Mississippi through eight states—past wheat fields and ranches, missions and pueblos, mountains and deserts. Carving through curving canyon passages only a few feet wider than the train itself, you'll see spectacular landscapes and pristine vistas not visible from interstate highways.

 

RAIL RUNNER: The Rail Runner is passenger train service between the Albuquerque Greater Metro Area and Santa Fe. They are working on continuing to expand links to other transportation options, like high capacity bus routes.
 

Bus Connections from the Downtown Albuquerque Alvarado station:

 

ABQ RIDE Route 766 - Rapid Ride Red Line 
Use this express bus route located in the front of the building to access Old Town, the ABQ BioPark, UNM, Nob Hill and Uptown 

 

ABQ RIDE Route 40 - The D-RIDE
This is a free downtown circulator that runs every 7 minutes.

 

ABQ RIDE Route 53 - Isleta
Use this route to access the Albuquerque Zoo

 

ABQ RIDE Route 350 - Airport Express

Use this route to access the Albuquerque International Sunport 

 

Other ABQ RIDE Routes
There are more than 20 other ABQ RIDE bus routes that get you just about anywhere in the city!

 

Show your Rail Runner ticket to get on the bus for free!

 

UNM Hospital and UNM Campus: Free shuttle service to UNM Hospital and UNM Campus is available. More information.

 

Park and Ride: take the NMDOT's Park and Ride bus to travel between the Downtown Albuquerque Rail Runner Station and East Mountains/Moriarty.  Read all about theTurquoise Route.

 

ABQ: Autumn

ALBUQUERQUE

Autumn at Biopark


“Flowers, cold from the dew,
And autumn's approaching breath,
I pluck for the warm, luxuriant braids,
Which haven't faded yet.

In their nights, fragrantly resinous,
Entwined with delightful mystery,
They will breathe in her springlike
Extraordinary beauty.

But in a whirlwind of sound and fire,
From her shiny head they will flutter
And fall—and before her
They will die, faintly fragrant still.

And, impelled by faithful longing,
My obedient gaze will feast upon them—
With a reverent hand,
Love will gather their rotting remains.” 
― Anna Akhmatova, The Complete Poems

ABQ: Windows of Old Town

ALBUQUERQUE

Photo journal of the Window of Old Town.


Sept. 2012