BY CHRISTINA PROCTER | PHOTOGRAPHS BY KATE RUSSELL
Boom
Town
A new complex in the Siler Road
neighborhood will provide rentals
and a maker space for creatives
When Hector Garcia left Juárez, Mexico, at age 13,
he was making three dollars a week, one of which
he’d spend on an English class. He crossed the
border alone with high hopes and reached Santa
Fe, where he lived at the Boys and Girls Club and
soon got citizenship—but he never dreamed that
someday he’d run Aztec Upholstery and become
the city’s main supplier to high-end interior
designers. w Garcia’s shop is located next to Java
Joe’s off Siler Road, and his is just one of the
industrial area’s many success stories. Garcia and
his apprentices make the pieces that end up in
Parade of Homes and ShowHouse Santa Fe each
year, but this is nothing unusual in a neighborhood
of makers. Next door, brothers Jorge and Rodrigo of
Rodriguez Woodworks have made custom cabinetry
for hotels and homes for 20 years. w “I love this
neighborhood,” says Garcia, who built his career
by plying the skills he learned making furniture
and leather with his father and grandfather. “At the
body shop that used to be across the street from
me, that guy gave me my first opportunity.”
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W
hat makes a neighborhood great? Those
involved in planning the Siler Road affordable
live-work apartments for creatives have been
asking the question about this area of Santa
Fe for years. In 2018, the dirt piles of an empty
city lot will be replaced with the carefully designed Siler Yard
Arts and Creativity Center (ACC), where makers of all genres
will cohabit in affordable rental units designed to maximize their
crafts. They’ll also have access, along with the rest of the neigh-
borhood, to a maker space with the latest industry tools.
The district, which extends along Siler Road between Agua Fria
and Cerrillos and incorporates Rufina Street, has long been known
for its industrial production, cheap rent, and affable commercial
neighbors. The abundance of trade shops has formed the under-
pinning of the city and contributed to its style—not to mention
providing paint jobs for its more fetching lowriders. Musicians,
curators, and artists, along with technicians and tinkerers, are tak-
ing advantage of the economical accommodations and “anything
goes” nature of the neighborhood, and they’re growing in numbers.
“One of the reasons I believe in this project is that it’s happening
at the right time in the right place,” says Trey Jordan, one of the
architects on ACC’s design team. “It’s not ‘build it and they’ll come.’
It’s ‘build it because they’re already there.’ ”
This growth began long before Meow Wolf started making
millions out of a formerly derelict bowling alley on Rufina Circle,
back when the group was throwing house parties and taking
part in an underground arts scene that
gave rise to venues like Radical Abacus, Metal artist and sound
Ghost, and, more recently, Fresh Santa savant Peter Joseph has
worked in the area for
Fe, run by architect and artist Gregory
years, producing multi-
Waits. Bucking the trends of Santa Fe’s media installations that
traditional art markets and rising tour- are exhibited internation-
ist prices, the area’s vigorous DIY scene ally. Left: Joseph’s studio
has drawn attention to a wider creative also houses an expan-
sive metal shop.
market among the stonemasons, metal-
smiths, and other makers who have shared their skills and net-
worked among themselves for decades. Artists have long staked
a claim in the area, among them blue-chip painter Paul Shapiro,
sculptor Paul Bloch, and metal designer Peter Joseph. At artist
August Muth’s holography studio, apprentices come from all over
the world to train with a master.
“It’s really the center of the city,” says Zane Fischer, founder of
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Hector Garcia founded Aztec Upholstery, which has for decades been a hub
for the city’s top interior designers. Opposite, from left: TK----, TK----, and TK--
of Angelo’s Auto Care and Repair shop on Rufina Street.
MAKE Santa Fe, a nonprofit community workspace where people
can access tools, resources, and workshops to help them realize
their creative projects. “That’s not only true geographically and by
population density, but it’s the heart and soul, where the real mak-
ing has been going on since the ’60s.”
Creative Santa Fe, an arts organization that works to strengthen
the creative economy through collaborative projects, began inves-
tigating how to tackle community development in response to an
economic study that identified the city at the top of the nation’s art
markets, with $1.1 billion moving through annually. And yet, says
director Cyndi Conn, “no one in our community was actively leading
an affordable housing project for creative individuals to ensure this
group’s long-term sustainability.”
Meanwhile, explains housing consultant Daniel Werwath, the
city has experienced a housing crisis, with rents rising unchecked
and affordable rental projects repeatedly squashed by neighborhood
associations. “Without affordable rental housing,” he says, “the
86 TREND Summer 2017
Garcia and his apprentices make the pieces
that end up in Parade of Homes and
ShowHouse Santa Fe each year, but this is
nothing unusual in a neighborhood of makers.
city’s development will drive out the diversity we’re known for, and
leave in its stead a retirement wasteland.”
Creative Santa Fe called in experts from Artspace, a leading
developer of affordable housing for artists, to conduct a feasibil-
ity study. The nonprofit, which has initiated 46 live-work projects
across the country, confirmed the city’s dire need for something
similar. When the City Council voted unanimously to donate a
five-acre parcel of land worth $1.2 million, the project became
viable. Creative Santa Fe then released a request for proposals to
select a local developer. New Mexico Inter-Faith Housing (NMIF)
was chosen with chief operating officer Daniel Werwath at the
helm. Creative Santa Fe NMIF ran a competition to select a a
design team of architects.
“We’re hoping to create this ecosystem where it’s not just about
low-cost space to be creative, but also being co-located with all these
other creative people,” says Werwath, “Thrown into the pot are
resources that make new tools and technologies available, coupled
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 The Arts and Creativity
Center’s west-facing entry.
Center: Architects and
designers of the project

TOP AND BOTTOM: COURTESY OF ATKIN OLSHIN SCHADE ARCHITECTS, TREY JORDAN ARCHITECTURE, DA SILVA ARCHITECTURE, AND SURROUNDINGS.
include, from left to right:
Miguel da Silva, Sandra
Donner, Tushita Vavas,
Trey Jordan, Will Iadevaia,
Shawn Evans, Garron
Yepa, and Miriam Diddy.
Bottom: An aerial view
of the ACC site.

Members of the ACC outreach team include designers, artists, and other makers gathered by affordable housing consultant Daniel
Werwath (front left). Top: Creative Santa Fe director Cyndi Conn (center) and board chairman Bill Miller (right) rallied groups around the
city’s affordable rental housing crisis, receiving unanimous support for land donation from City Council and Mayor Javier Gonzales (left).
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 The neighborhood’s many converted
industrial spaces are home to such
wonders as those chiseled in marble
by sculptor Paul Bloch, whose work
is influenced by jazz and more than
a decade of work and study in Italy.
90 TREND Summer 2017 trendmagazineglobal.com 91
 with courses that help people become more economically vibrant
in their practices.” The complex includes a shared resources space
that will house MAKE Santa Fe (currently located around the block),
where anyone can become a member and gain access to tools like
an industrial sewing machine, a laser cutter, a 3-D printer, a plasma
cutter, and a CNC router.
The ACC’s 60 units will primarily target low-income tenants,
renting for somewhere between $363 and $606 a month. But this
project cannot solve the city’s rental housing crisis by itself. “There
should be air-raid sirens going off right now with the statistics,”
warns Werwath, citing the city’s latest housing needs assessment,
which concluded that 3,000 additional units of affordable rental
housing are needed just to meet today’s demands. With a miniscule
vacancy rate, waiting lists for affordable rentals are dauntingly long.
On top of that, says Werwath, the past two years saw double-digit
increases in rents across the city, with a 13 percent increase in 2016
and a ten percent increase in 2015, leaving the puzzled and dwin-
dling population with a near 25 percent rent inflation. “It’s at a crisis
point,” he concludes. Fortunately, he says, the ACC is one of two
affordable rental projects approved by the city this year, a signal to
developers that there’s support for a new direction.
The ACC requires that tenant selection reflect the diversity of
92 TREND Summer 2017
the low-income sector, not of the entire population, thus avoiding
the mistake made by some well-intentioned affordable projects.
“The area is under a bunch of unique gentrification pressures
that are really serious,” admits Werwath. “It’s no longer the edge
of town, and when other places are so restrictive, it makes this
area precious.” Securing affordable rental space there is a proac-
tive measure against the dangers of gentrification, he explains,
and he hopes the ACC becomes a model for what the city can do
with other swaths of unused land.
The units are designed for flexible use, with north- and south-
facing windows that take in the northern light desired by painters
and maximize energy efficiency. A central spine of greenery will
connect the complex, with units situated to promote interaction
among the residents, explains Shawn Evans of AOS Architects,
known for affordable housing and community development proj-
ects. Jordan says the team aims to leave the design open to whatever
character the community takes on. Much of the exterior walls of the Metal artist Diego Velázquez
buildings, for instance, are reserved for mural or projection work to crafts custom commercial and
be curated by residents. art pieces at Santa Fe Metal
“This is going to be a place that, like the neighborhood, is loud Design on Siler Lane. Opposite:
Blacksmith, woodworker, and
and messy and permissive,” says Evans. “This is part of a movement Spanish Colonial artist Rene
to recognize the cultural and economic diversity of this town, to Zamora has designed many
of the doors and gates found
throughout Santa Fe.
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 Will Wood designs cus- “Without affordable rental housing the
city’s development will drive out the
tom furniture elements at
Ironwood Forge on Trades
West Road. Top, from left:
MAKE Santa Fe regulars
include artists Cia Thorne,
diversity we’re known for, and leave in
Anaid Garcia, and Katrina
Mendoza. Opposite: Tools
its stead a retirement wasteland.”
of the trade at Ironwood
Forge and other smith
shops in the neighborhood.

94 TREND Summer 2017

 position this place and these people as the real mak-
ers of the future of Santa Fe.”
“What makes this project so successful is the out-
reach they’ve done,” says Heidi Zimmer of Artspace.
Of concern to organizers, however, are other live-
work projects that sank like lead balloons in other
cities, likely due to failed outreach. “It’s not easy,”
says Werwath. “It’s always the same dozen people
who show up at meetings, and they’re not the people
you’re trying to serve.”
But when Creative Santa Fe won a National
Endowment for the Arts grant to fund outreach,
Werwath pulled together a team to tap into the
city’s creative groups to determine what diverse
makers want and need. “We’re working with art-
ists from different subsections of the community
and saying, ‘Here’s the funding, here’s the infor-
mation we want to gather. Let’s work together to
produce events that reach your constituencies.’ ”
Such events include last year’s lowrider festival
hosted by Enchanted Expressions Car Club and
organized by lowrider aficionada Justice Lovato,
whose family owns a car shop across the street from
the ACC plot. With increasing access to shared tools
and potential collaborations, there’s no telling what
tinkerers will do. When sought-after auto artist Car-
los Muñoz checked out MAKE Santa Fe, he started
thinking about how his business could use a laser
cutter to create patterns for stencils to paint cars.
Project organizers express faith that they can rep-
resent and amplify the neighborhood’s strengths.
“We’re giving the city a platform to be larger problem
solvers and create a pilot project,” says Conn. “We
want to show the world that this is replicable, and
that true collaboration is always better.”
Flux and development remain the area norm.
While some people keep to themselves in refur-
bished warehouse studios, others start new busi-
nesses, like Christian Moreno, who teamed up with
Adam Griego to start Honest Automotive. A typical
cluster forms where Trades West Cabinet Shop
Artist Michael Freed of shares a complex with painter and curator Michael
Offroad Productions
Freed, who leases space on either side of his build-
hosts quarterly curated
shows in his Trades ing to metal artist Adam Rosen of Metal Mogul
West Road studio. and painter John Vokoun, who does printing and
pre-press at Fire Dragon Color. Nearby, thousands of
participants have practiced circus arts at Wise Fool,

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Multimedia artists Crockett
Bodelson (left) and Sandra
Wang of SCUBA have recently
taken up residence in the area.
Opposite: Lowrider guru Justice
Lovato organized a festival for
ACC’s outreach last year.
98 TREND Summer 2017
and while Diego Velázquez at Santa Fe Metal Clad smiths elements
for contemporary design around town, dozens of other makers toil
at their trades.
Back at Aztec Upholstery, Garcia marvels at his good fortune.
“I don’t know why they come for me,” says the go-to consultant for
carpenters and designers. “I think it’s because I’m interested in
making the industry better. The style, comfort, and quality have to
get better every time in order for us to be content with ourselves.”
At this point, Garcia feels obligated to pass on his skills. He
teaches with Delancey Street Foundation, which provides workforce
training to former substance abusers, ex-convicts, and others in
need. He’s trained workers in San Juan Pueblo and even San Fran-
cisco, where participants were inspired to open an upholstery shop
after his weeklong visit.
Across the street is longtime resident Ed Crist, who sculpts
and does auto welding, along with recent neighborhood additions
Sandra Wang and Crockett Bodelson. The artist duo bought their
warehouse after finding that a rental downtown provided little foot
traffic to their gallery space.
Wang has set up a communal ceramics studio there with two
kilns, a pottery wheel, and a separate room for glazing. “It takes a
lot of effort for ceramic artists to collect all that expensive equip-
ment,” she says. “When you have that, it almost feels like [you have]
an obligation to share.” Wang is pleased to hear about the incoming
ACC space, which she thinks will further the area’s creativity. “We
had to look to the Siler area to find more affordable studio space, and
we feel more at home now. We’re around other artists, people who
understand what we’re doing—and nobody cares if we’re playing
loud music or having an event.”
Wang does express caution about expansion. “It’s exciting to
hear about things coming in, like a grocery store or a restaurant,
but you have to consider the impact, and how that can price out
families who have been here for a long time,” she says. “Crockett
and I always try to keep a DIY status, keep things low-key. We
want to contribute to the creative community, but we want to do
it responsibly.”
Her one complaint? “We need more women. It’s a bunch of
dudes around here.” R
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