After years of planning, Silver City continues to inch closer to a new town recreation center, through which town leaders hope to afford more opportunities to youth, veterans and seniors from across Grant County.
In 2020, the town received $4 million in capital outlay money from the state of New Mexico for the new recreational facility, matched by the town for a total budget of $8 million.
In the meantime, both the county and town have organized numerous committees, conducted land surveys and distributed questionnaires to determine how a new facility could best serve residents — and now, they’ve enlisted a little extra help.
This past Friday and Saturday, 14 architecture students, originally from all around the world, visited Silver City to assist in planning for the new rec center. The event was organized by Tim Castillo, tenured associate professor at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico.
Castillo is one of the founders of the Finding Rural program, a collaboration with Western New Mexico University, the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico and the School of Architecture at Woodbury University.
“Our aim is to explore how architecture and design play a role in economic development in rural communities throughout the state,” he said. “Over the last six years, we’ve worked with communities across the state, and we’ve helped showcase how architecture can benefit economic development and sustainability of those rural communities.
“We want the students to get a contextual idea of what Silver City is about,” Castillo continued. “We did a broad survey of the potential sites for the new rec center, and took photos as well as oral interviews with residents so as to get a sense of the community needs.”
While in Silver City, students had the opportunity to speak with members of the community and visited the mines, the Gila Wilderness and Fort Bayard, along with the surrounding neighborhoods that make up Grant County.
“This is so the students get a sense of how the recreation center interacts with the whole community,” Castillo said. “We’re looking at ways to connect the schools — elementary, middle and high schools — and eventually, we hope to develop an infrastructural network of bike and hiking trails that can lead you all the way to downtown.”
He said the context of the community is key to the students’ work.
“One of the main things we look at is the evolution over the past 15 years, as well as what that will look like in the future,” he said.
Over the two-day excursion, students became familiar with demographics the rec center will aim to serve, and learned of the town’s priorities for youth, the elderly and veterans. The 14 students who participated will return to Silver City in late October.
“Hopefully when we come back, we’ll have 14 new and diverse ideas for the rec center,” Castillo said. “The goal over the next month or so is to develop products and visual aids. We look forward to coming back to show the renderings the students come up with.”
—ANA TRINIDAD