New entryway sign greets visitors to Santa Fe; Keep Santa Fe Beautiful legacy project is gift to city of Santa Fe

July 17, 2020, Santa Fe, N.M. – Residents and visitors to Santa Fe will now be greeted by a new entryway sign on a highway median coming off of U.S. 84-285. The entryway sign welcoming motorists into Santa Fe is a gift from the non-profit Keep Santa Fe Beautiful to the city of Santa Fe, its residents and visitors.

“The entryway sign has been a goal – and dream – of the Keep Santa Fe Beautiful Board of Directors for many years,” said Keep Santa Fe Beautiful Executive Director Carol Branch. “We’re so excited to see that this dream has become a reality and we hope that the thousands of people in vehicles that travel by it every day will enjoy this work of art, this gift to the city of Santa Fe.”

The sign sits on a traffic median that separates traffic merging left onto North Guadalupe Street and St. Francis Drive from U.S. 84-285. Branch said Keep Santa Fe Beautiful will be responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the sign, which is 20-feet wide and about 10 feet tall and incorporates traditional adobe color schemes, a Zia symbol and the words Santa Fe inscribed on a patinated copper-colored metal background.

“This is just phase one,” said Branch. “We plan to add landscaping and lighting so the sign is visible at night.”

Grants from two previous fiscal years totaling $60,000 from the New Mexico Clean and Beautiful program of the New Mexico Tourism Department funded the design, materials and installation of the sign, with the New Mexico Department of Transportation approving the site through an Air and Space Agreement. Sketchbook Studio, LLC proprietor George Lawrence, designed the sign for Keep Santa Fe Beautiful under the direction of the previous executive director, Gilda Montano. Construction was administered through the City of Santa Fe procurement process and conducted by Babcock Construction.

“I want to thank Mayor Alan Webber, City Manager Jarel La Pan Hill and the Environmental Services Division for their support to get this project completed; and the New Mexico Film Office, which endorsed the initiative,” added Branch