Rio Rancho’s Remote City Hall Shows Vision

by Neal Singer

Rio Rancho’s new $13.4 million city hall sits by itself, awaiting the construction of the rest of the  growing city’s new core. The four-story building features many unique architectural details and green features such as a ground-source heat pump.

The new, innovative city hall for the city of Rio Rancho, N.M. may at present seem like it is out in left field. The $13.4 million, 68,000-sq-ft steel, rock and glass structure currently has only the city’s new sports arena and a water tank for company. 

But city planners are hoping that the rest of the rapidly growing city, just to the northwest of Albuquerque, will build up around its new center in an orderly manner. Contracts for nearby land with potential large users like the University of New Mexico are in the works 

Meanwhile, the empty “Main Street” on which the 74-ft-tall, four-story building fronts maintains a population of rabbits and a few birds. 

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With an estimated 70,000 residents and still growing, Rio Rancho officials needed a plan to combat urban sprawl and uncontrolled growth. The old city hall in the center of present-day Rio Rancho could have been torn down and rebuilt, but instead “the city decided to start fresh,” says project engineer Casey Gibbs of Albuquerque-based general contractor Gerald Martin.

Architect Gregory Hartman of Albuquerque-based The Hartman & Majewski Design Group made good use of the temporary solitude. “It’s in the middle of nowhere but we tried to make it the center of the universe,” he says. “The building is an envelope for artwork, with hanging mobiles and large native rocks.”

One lobby rock weighs 32,000 lbs, Gibbs says.

“We installed the rocks partly buried in cement like they were coming out of the ground to emphasize the building’s connection with nature,” Hartman says.  

Floor-to-ceiling glass and a four-story atrium give “unique connections to those million-dollar views” of hills and more distant mountains, he adds. “You couldn’t buy a painting as beautiful as that.” 

A floor installed between the second and third floor of the atrium provides additional recreational seating for employees and a place for more artwork while keeping down heating and cooling costs.

Color schemes internally and externally mimic that of the natural environment.
A concrete entry arch is 4 ft thick, 8 ft wide and 18 ft tall with exposed snap-tie holes that help provide a rustic look to the mid-sized office building.

An overhead entrance grate on both sides of the building allows a view through the glass-walled lobby and gives a feeling of light.

Construction began in June 2006 and finished on schedule in July. The building’s grand opening was celebrated this month.

Drought-resistant plants such as New Mexico agave, prickly pear cactus, Mexican blue sage, Sierra Gold and Arizona rosewood were installed under direction of Albuquerque-based landscape architects Sites Southwest. Trees like Chinese pistache and Raywood ash follow the same water-sparse-but-attractive motif.

The scenic boulders also serve a security function by making it impossible for anyone to drive a vehicle into the building’s lobby.

Since the immediately-surrounding ground was relatively soft and plenty of space was available, Hartman worked with Albuquerque-based Bridgers and Paxton Consulting Engineers and others on a ground-source heat pump to heat and cool the key city building.

The system consists of 180, 1-in.-diameter pipes on 20-ft centers drilled down to a depth of 250 ft, Gibbs says. Water is pumped through the pipes in closed loops at 3.3 gal per minute. The output produces water at a constant temperature year-round between 65 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The 130 interior heat pumps use this water to cool the building in the summer and heat it in the winter. In addition, passive solar and heat from the building’s interior lighting adds heat in winter. 

The innovative arrangement “treats the ground like a giant automobile radiator,” Gibbs says of the plastic polypipe that bends its way up and down in the earth. The water is filtered for impurities.

The ecological system removes the need for a more conventional cooling tower and boiler.

The idea was that the city hall could demonstrate sustainable design techniques to the public, Hartman says.

“It’s a great method, very green,” says John Grapsas, president of Bridgers and Paxton. “We’re not using gas for a boiler or sending out emissions.”

There is a higher up-front cost for the system that can hike the construction price between $100,000 to $200,000.

However, the investment will be recouped in approximately five years and the lifespan of the system is projected to be 50 years, Gibbs says.

The method may be less attractive to investors looking for rapid turnover, but cities have “the luxury of dealing with long-term costs,” Hartman says.

Another factor is the type of terrain. “The ground conductivity of a rocky landscape may not be feasible for this method,” Grapsas says, comparing it to the conventionally heated Volcano Vista High School also under construction by Gerald Martin. That building rests on lava rock unsuitable for ground-thermal heating and cooling.

The amount of land available for the system is also a factor, Grapsas says. The Rio Rancho city hall polypipes are covered by a parking lot, so the space has a multiple use.

In another area, 2-in. expansion joints separate the steel-frame building into two halves to accommodate the expansion rate of the atrium glass at its center.

About 140 yds of cement were used for one of the stair towers as the building’s main structural support. The footing is 30 ft by 35 ft by 4-ft thick. The elevator tower rests on an 18- by 36-ft by 4-ft-thick footing.

The entire structure required 273 tons of structural steel

Key Players

Owner: City of Rio Rancho
Architect/Civil Eng.: Hartman & Majewski Design Group
General Contractor: Gerald Martin General Contracting
Structural Engineer: Quiroga-Pfeiffer Engineering
MEP Engineer: Bridgers and Paxton Consulting Engineers
Subcontractors: Five G's Steel; Southwest Glass and Glazing; Les File Drywall; Hanna Plumbing; National HVAC; VA Electric

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