New and... Improved?

NMSU is proposing a new, three-phase arts complex to join the visual, dramatic, and musical arts programs into one part of campus. Architects' renderings of the first building have been released.

For those of you familiar with the campus, the building will be located at the SE corner of University Ave. and Espina St., where a grass lawn and trees are now. (Lord knows there are too many green things in the Chihuahuan Desert, so it won't hurt to lose a few.)

This press release has four drawings of the intended facility. The first image shows the building catacorner, viewed from the NW corner of the intersection. (Note the existing Conroy Honors Center, the old YMCA, in the lower right of the image.) This building, "will complement the architecture of the region," according to the press release, but I can tell you it resembles no other building now standing in Las Cruces. I wonder how far they go in their definition of "region".

The third image shows an entrance to the new building in between the old YMCA building (to the left) and the old music building (to the right). (Note how the building appears more in scale with the existing buildings, in contrast to the first picture.)

One hundred one years ago, the headline read, "New College to be Work of Art". It's a pity that it won't be continued this century, with the new arts complex.