artists, which immediately establishes a festive mood at the site.
Altitude and climate presented design challenge
In a valley between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the San Juan Mountains, just 18 miles north of the New Mexico border, San Luis lies at an elevation of 7,989 feet above sea level. That’ s 2,709 feet higher than Denver, Colorado’ s capitol and celebrated“ Mile High City.”
At that altitude, San Luis receives abundant sunshine and stunning, electric pink sunsets throughout the year. While the benefits of that are obvious, the sunshine also posed a major design challenge for the Ayres team: how to provide the new plaza with ample shade.
“ Most large shade structures tend to be quite expensive,” Esker said.“ And we couldn’ t rely solely on planting trees. It would take 10 to 20 years for trees to grow large enough to provide the kind of shade that will be needed.”
The answer to this puzzle? The plaza’ s main design – a large pergola, a trellislike structure, made of Corten steel.
Corten steel, which is made of a group of steel alloys often used in outdoor construction, never requires painting and, when left to the elements, quickly develops an attractive rusted appearance. This will allow the pergola to blend in well with the adobe structures prevalent in San Luis.
Right: Residents celebrate together at the newly completed San Luis civic plaza, which the community hopes to use to host music and dance festivals, farmers ' markets, and other social gatherings.
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