McCLAIN + YU is ecstatic to announce that we are the recipients of FOUR awards in 2022 for our Rio Rancho SkyRoom submission - UNM Jeff Harnar Award, AIA Albuquerque Award, AIA New Mexico Award, and the ACSA Faculty Design Award!
The SkyRoom within Rio Rancho’s Campus Park embodies the spirit of New Mexico with its subtle nod to the the Zia symbol and the 4 cardinal points with manipulation of light and shadow. Several other points of influence contributed to the SkyRoom design. First, the project needed to serve as the centerpiece within the newly developed Campus Park - Turfgrass lawn panels now spill out of the main opening of the SkyRoom offering visitors a cool, shady place to enjoy a picnics/concerts/fireworks. Second, we wanted the pavilion to provide a frame for a stone-lined amphitheater and traverse 30 feet of topographical change. Third, the SkyRoom was conceived as a geometrical construct – the result of a subtractive intersection of a large shed roofed structure with two cylindrical volumes. The cylinders, one small, one large, intersect in the space, creating a surprising, albeit Euclidean ruled surface. Finally, the SkyRoom needed to serve as a performance space with unique acoustics, to create areas with a high degree of focus for sound along with other areas which diffuse sound.
We are excited to share with you some images of our SkyRoom!