The Aperture Center channels the West’s obsessions with film and the open road into a shape shifting mixed-use building dissolving into the sky. Approached from the boulevard, the Center’s arced glass facade shimmers like a mirage vanishing and reappearing in the high desert light.
Sited on a plateau between the Manzano Mountains and the Rio Grande Valley, the Center carries the aura of a roadside motel or drive-in movie theater. The curved glass “screen” is fritted with a pattern developed from cattle bones found on-site. As the sun passes across the sky, shifting bands of illumination animate the façade creating a captivating dance between solidity and transparency. At dusk, the contrast between interior glow and darkened glass reveals the frit pattern in bold relief.
Surrounded by soundstages, the foreground park and West facing glass “screen” reflect the cinematic magic of an old Hollywood movie set while the east side recalls straight forward pragmatism of the “back lot.” Retail occupies the ground level with office space above, while The University of New Mexico’s Film and Digital Media Centre anchors the north end.
At the south end, an ox blood red sculptural stair rises beneath a light-well spotlighting a granite boulder excavated from the site. By day the Center reflects the vast New Mexico sky; by night it becomes a beacon for travelers moving along the cinematic dream highway.
