Lobo Rain­for­est is part of the Uni­ver­sity of New Mexico and is located at Inno­vate ABQ in the city center of Albu­querque, in one of the biggest cities of New Mexico, USA. It is a six-story mixed-use build­ing that includes over 30,000 square feet of aca­d­e­mic, research, and office space, along with ABQ stu­dent hous­ing.

The Lobo Rain­for­est encour­ages col­lab­o­ra­tion between stu­dents and fac­ulty who will all be at the site. The build­ing and sur­round­ings were designed for activ­ity, and lots of it. Each stu­dent apart­ment, located on floors two through six, includes 2 bed­rooms, 2 bath­rooms, a full kitchen, living space, a washer and dryer, and views of the city. Events are held for stu­dents who live here, but those that don’t live in this build­ing are also invited. The goal of these events is to get par­tic­i­pa­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion flow­ing.

In order to keep the court­yard open, Selux Lanova Cate­nary fix­tures were used to add illu­mi­na­tion with­out inter­fer­ence. By sus­pend­ing the cate­nary cables directly to the build­ing, poles in the middle of the court­yard were kept to a min­i­mum, allow­ing for traf­fic to flow freely through­out the space. This helps open up team­work and unity, solid­i­fy­ing the goals of Lobo Rain­for­est.

landscape architect: Dekker/Perich/Sabatini

photographer: Dekker/Perich/Sabatini