Second Street Studios Live / Work Community
Santa Fe, New Mexico

GOAL
To create a new model for an affordable live/work community.

CHALLENGE
To find a construction method that was inexpensive, durable and provided high volume spaces.

OUTCOME
Using Barn technology, successful model of development that has had 100% occupancy over the last 20 years.


Second Street Studios, an 80,000 square foot artist and entrepreneur’s live/work community, was the first newly constructed artist live/work project to be built in the United States since the Great Depression.

The Second Street Studios community is arranged around a series of tree-filled courtyards using prefabricated Barn Building technology. Buildings offer 24-foot high ceilings, skylights, and living lofts. The vibrant tenant community includes artists and artisans, a software development firm, a salsa maker, a furniture maker, a frame shop, and dozens of other innovative businesses.

As a testament to the success of this development, Second Street Studios has undergone the third phase of expansion in its nearly twenty-year history. Adjacent to a recently reactivated rail line, the development has maintained near 100% occupancy over the last twenty years and continues to provide low-cost, mixed use, affordable commercial space for the Santa Fe area. Second Street Studios has served as a catalyst for the revitalization of other industrial parts of Santa Fe into thriving downtown areas with small businesses, galleries, and restaurants. The live/work loft unit type pioneered through this development continues to spread across the country.


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Firm Role
Co-Developer with Communico Inc.


Project Profile
A new artist/live work community in Santa Fe, New Mexico


Project Team
Architect: Calthorpe Associates
Development Partner: Wayne and Susan Nichols, Communico


Total Project Size / Budget
100,000 square feet /
1st phase: 40,000 sq.ft / $3 m
2nd phase: 10,000 sq.ft / $1.35 m
3rd phase: 20,200 sq.ft / $3 m


Completion
1st phase completed in 1989
2nd phase completed in 1994
3rd phase completed in 2008