The Design Assist Team is a community‐oriented group of Chapter members assembled to address specific design challenges. The DAT is project-based, and provides guidance and input for design questions that affect the community.
The Design Assist Team's goal at Midtown is to ensure that the City of Santa Fe performs a Historic Cultural Properties Inventory (HCPI) for the full campus before any demolition takes place. This ensures that the structures to be demolished during the Midtown redevelopment are documented for posterity, and the history of the space and its structures is researched and recorded.
May 2021 City of Santa Fe LED Streetlight Conversion Project
Excerpt from June 10 Design Assist Team Report:
I'd like to share an update regarding our most recent Design Assist Team endeavor on the City of Santa Fe's LED Conversion Project. I'd also like to extend a special thanks to Mr. David Carr AIA, who has represented the Santa Fe Chapter during City Council discussions, and at the Lighting Design Working Group meetings held by the City's lighting contractor.
David identified many issues regarding the Working Group, including the lack of opportunity to have a full discussion within the Working Group and the lack of consensus for a recommendation to the Governing Body. His correspondence with the Governing Body alerted them to these shortcomings, and as such, the Councilors had a thoughtful debate regarding the limited timeline for review and lack of consensus for the services to be provided.
With this understanding, an amendment is to be proposed to the Governing Body in roughly 1.5 months (after the amendment language passes through committee) which will include additions to the implementation phase to create pause points for review and analysis after each phase of the installation before proceeding to the next. Each installation phase (four in total) is estimated to take roughly one month.
The lighting specifications the City Council voted to accept is Package E (available on SantaFeLED.com), which includes smart controls for dimming capacity at each light. Dimming will be addressed after installation with each neighborhood community to address individual fixtures. Through the Working Group process, the design was refined from 3000K on residential streets to 2700K (plus a lens to reduce glare). Local and collector road specifications were adjusted to a 3000K light with a lower wattage. Major roads were adjusted to 3000K from 4000K. In all instances, lighting specs were adjusted to have a warmer color temperature than originally proposed.
August 2021 UPDATE: City of Santa Fe LED Streetlight Conversion Project
The City of Santa Fe City Council has approved amendments to the streetlight conversion contract.
Click the article at right to read the Santa Fe New Mexican's report.
See below for the official amendment from the City.