Convention Center Remodel Unveiled

Mayor Richard Berry unveiled preliminary designs today for what the Albuquerque Convention Center might look like after $20 million in renovations.

The designed developed by local firm Dekker/Perich/Sabatini is intended to make the drab, gray building look a bit more like “New Mexico.” The new design is “territorial” in design, rather than the pueblo-style common in Santa Fe.

The plans call for an outdoor deck looking onto Civic Plaza from the second-floor ballroom, a fire-place-themed great room, panoramic windows, a new facade and a lower-level food court or cafe.

The city refinanced some debt with lower interest rates to free up the $20 million for renovations.

“We’re trying to build a facility that looks and feels more like New Mexico,” Berry said in a news conference this afternoon (July 10). “We do not want a convention center that looks like every other convention center in the country.”

Here’s an earlier story on the debt refinancing and another one that looked at why the city is still so much in debt on the structure.

I’ll have more in tomorrow’s paper on the designs and when construction might start. I posted some photos to Twitter.