Philosophy

Perched in the high desert, at the foothills of the majestic Rocky Mountains, Santa Fe has been at the forefront of environmental sensitivity since humans first settled in the region many millennia ago. Santa Fe Studios has been designed and built within this great tradition of minimizing one’s impact upon the planet.

Architecture

Each detail has been designed in harmony with our overriding green ethos. Building alignment, campus orientation, natural lighting, rain-water harvesting, low-flow plumbing fixtures, electric car charging stations, recycling programs, material selection, and on and on.

Taking inspiration from the region's ancient pueblo architecture in more ways than simple aesthetics, the primary structures are aligned north to south. With the production offices attached to the northern faces of the soundstages, the amount of cooling required in the warm summer months is significantly reduced, as the offices are shaded through the course of the sun’s daily journey. Conversely, the amount of heating required in the cooler winter months is similarly reduced, as the offices are huddled close together. Rainwater is harvested into one of the largest cisterns in Northern New Mexico and drip-irrigates the indigenous landscaping.

The pre-Columbian Anasazis who initially settled the area revered the local geographical features – mountains, canyons, mesas, as well as the sun, moon and stars – and the neighboring UNESCO-heritage pueblos of Chaco Canyon were built in alignment with this surrounding sacred geography. Similarly Santa Fe Studios has been constructed to honor the local pueblos and their reverence. The central plaza embodies tribal and familial unity on the creative campus, as the chief public gathering spot, and features views of the nearby sacred mountain peaks. At the summer solstice, as the sun rises over 11,661 ft Elk Mountain, its morning light illuminates the central water collection feature built along the primary axis of the Santa Fe Studios campus.