New benches freshen Plaza's appearance
Jan. 27—Cervantes "Buddy" Roybal has helped organize a cleanup day at the Santa Fe Plaza for at least a half-dozen years to prepare the downtown park for the tourist season. The effort has included repainting benches, light poles and curbs.
On his last cleanup day, Roybal, a member of the volunteer group Friends of the Plaza and owner of Coronado Paint and Decorating, wanted to sandblast the 30-year-old benches to remove multiple layers of paint — and then give them a fresh coat.
He reached out to Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce President Bridget Dixon, who was in favor of the plan. But the pair encountered an obstacle — the iron benches were too old to withstand sandblasting.
"They pretty much crumbled," Dixon said. "They are just too old, too many coats of paint."
Roybal and others decided it was time to replace the Plaza benches. "It just needed to be done," he said.
City officials gathered Wednesday at the Plaza with Roybal, Dixon and others to celebrate the addition of the 32 new benches — designed to resemble those that graced the park more than 80 years ago and were crafted from the same molds as the most recent replacements.
The bench project was spearheaded by Roybal and his wife, Irene, and cost $20,000 — a mix of lodgers tax and gross receipts tax revenue, the city said in a news release.
Dixon said after the ceremony the Plaza was in "desperate need" of the face-lift.
"People come from all over the world to come to the Plaza, and that was the impression they were getting," she said of the aging benches. "We really needed to upgrade that."
The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe wrote in an email the original Plaza benches were the result of a trip to Mexico by the group's president in 1939. After returning, he decided downtown visitors needed a place to sit and began raising funds for the project through bake sales and other events. He collected enough cash to purchase at least eight handcrafted benches from Mexico, made of wrought iron and wood.
The recently replaced benches were installed three decades ago under Mayor Sam Pick, the city news release said.
The Roybals, keeping the historic nature of the benches in mind, reached out to the city's Historic Preservation Division to find the molds used in the Pick era.
The new benches, which line the walkways of the Plaza, are made of poured aluminum and painted in the same forest green as the originals. Roybal said the new material will require far less maintenance and will last much longer than the previous versions.
"The heart of the city is the Plaza," Mayor Alan Webber said Wednesday. "It is where we come to celebrate. ... Part of the Plaza is to keep it fresh, to keep it looking great, to keep it welcoming, historic and handsome."
Melissa McDonald, acting city parks director, said the new benches were installed over four days last week and already have received favorable comments.
"I was walking around, asking people what they thought, if they were comfortable, and I got a really good, positive feedback," she said.
McDonald added, the city has ordered an additional bench for the Plaza that will be installed at a later date, as well as backup benches.
Randy Randall, the city's tourism director, touted the Plaza's improved ambiance. "With these beautiful green benches and beautiful red ristras, how great does this Plaza look?" he said. "We just need more people."
