Forbes Isais Leads Town Gown Collaboration

Geral­dine Forbes Isais came to UNM in 2005 to serve as direc­tor of the archi­tec­ture pro­gram in the School of Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning. In July of 2010, she was selected to serve as the school’s first female dean. Despite the fact that the school, like the rest of the uni­ver­sity and beyond, was suf­fer­ing finan­cial hard­ships from the eco­nomic down­turn, Forbes Isais was proac­tive in mov­ing the school ahead.

The recent cre­ation of the City­Lab in down­town Albu­querque addresses a con­cern that she, and many oth­ers have had, regard­ing the rela­tion­ship between the uni­ver­sity and the city. “How des­per­ately we need to break down the walls of the uni­ver­sity. UNM is an inte­gral part of the com­mu­nity and we need to make those edges more per­me­able,” she said.

Forbes Isais said that aside from the UNM School of Med­i­cine, UNM doesn’t have enough reach into the com­mu­nity. “We need to max­i­mize the col­lab­o­ra­tion between the city and the uni­ver­sity,” she said, adding that she is co-chairing a com­mit­tee with local archi­tects and a UNM bud­get ana­lyst to study cor­ri­dors and places where there’s an oppor­tu­nity to look at the “weft and warp” between the uni­ver­sity and the city. Areas cur­rently under review include Cen­tral Avenue from UNM to down­town, Lomas and north cam­pus, and south campus.

Stu­dents cur­rently tak­ing a stu­dio course at City­Lab are look­ing at Rt. 66 using a study on walk­a­ble blocks – an assess­ment of what is a com­fort­able walk­ing dis­tance, and adapt­ing that to Albuquerque.

Asso­ciate Dean Michaele Pride said that the school, the city and other com­mu­nity part­ners have applied for a grant from the National Endow­ment for the Human­i­ties. “It’s an Our Town grant, and should we get it, it would used to pro­mote art and com­mu­nity engage­ment to develop and enhance pub­lic spaces along Rt. 66,” she said, adding that Bernalillo County is also inter­ested in devel­op­ing a part­ner­ship like CityLab.

Forbes Isais added, “City­Lab is not to func­tion in iso­la­tion. It is to be a cat­a­lyst for activ­ity in the city that will fur­ther both urban and eco­nomic development.”

The School of Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning con­tin­ues to col­lab­o­rate with New Mex­ico Main­Street, Forbes Isais said, not­ing that the school’s Design Plan­ning Assis­tance Cen­ter (DPAC) is cur­rently engaged in a study of the his­toric the­aters on Clovis’s Main Street.

Forbes Isais said that Sen­a­tor Sue Wil­son Bef­fort is spon­sor­ing a bill for $100,000 to sup­port DPAC activ­i­ties. DPAC has engaged in design and plan­ning pro­grams statewide for more than 40 years, she said.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu