Reviving the art of the courthouse square in Gallup

A procession of public spaces may complete a courthouse repair and expansion project. Two years ago the McKinley County government resisted the temptation to move from downtown Gallup New Mexico — a largely intact center with many historic buildings, including the Spanish Pueblo Revival El Morro Theatre, sister to the resplendent and better- known Kimo Theatre in downtown Albuquerque. Though land with plenty of parking was being offered at a bargain outside downtown, the county commission led by Harry Mendoza decided to repair and expand the historic courthouse from the 1930s, an architectural gem with fine murals from the New Deal era. Within months the courthouse renovation and expansion, directed by Nims Calvani Architects of Albuquerque, will start. More recently the county and city jointly hired Thomas Leatherwood Associates, with Robert Odland Consulting, to conduct a courthouse square and downtown revitalization feasibility study. The consultant team included urban designer Chris Calott, an expert on courthouse squares and plazas of the Southwest and Mexico, and Chris Leinberger and Luisa Lindsey, veterans of Albuquerque’s ongoing revitalization efforts. The task was to provide a new gathering place for the community — a need inadvertently highlighted when a large concert was held in a Wal-Mart parking lot at the edge of the city at the same time that a downtown charrette was under way. The project’s design calls for three distinct contiguous spaces in a procession through the center of two city blocks, going from the courthouse steps down the hill to the downtown core. At the bottom is a train station on Amtrak’s east-west line, which serves also as a Multi-Cultural Center. Parallel to the railroad tracks are the glitzy neon lights of historic Route 66. Close to the courthouse would be the first element: a large open memorial square providing a community gathering place, honoring veterans such as the Navajo Code Talkers and a Japanese-American Medal of Honor winner from the Korean War who lives in Gallup. The square is to be framed by six landscaped alcoves of honor with statues nestled among a canopy of trees. Next would be a heritage grove celebrating the extraordinary ethnic heritage of this rough-and-tumble mining and railroad town, which attracted many newcomers directly from Ellis Island: Italians, Slavs, Greeks, Japanese, and Chinese, as well as African-Americans, Hispanics, and local native Americans, especially Navajo and Zuni. The heritage grove would be planted with large canopy trees shading four outdoor rooms — places intended more for quiet and rest. Third, an Arts Park and outdoor reading room outside a new children’s library would be created adjacent to the downtown core. Money for the project would be a combination of public funds and private donations. The county appears ready to commit $680,000 as part of a $13 million bond issue for the courthouse renovation and expansion. Mayor John Peña is leading city efforts, which include allocating land from two existing parking lots, closing the street in front of the courthouse, committing more than $250,000 in city funds, and lining up other public and private sources of funds. Expected to be included in the project is an existing statue of a Navajo code talker and a memorial that would be erected by an association of Japanese-American Korean War veterans. During World War II, Gallup, unlike other communities, refused to remove local Japanese-American citizens from their homes. If built, the new courthouse square would be a remarkable event in American planning. Though a square was once seen as a necessary adjunct to a courthouse, that tradition faded, and hardly any have been built in recent decades. “Surely there are other examples” of new courthouse squares, Calott says, “but I only know about Opelika, Alabama, where I lived at the time the square was created.”