In 2004, Poligon Park Architecture announced a design competition asking designers to do just that: create a shade structure reflecting the American West. Poligon, based in Holland, Mich., manufactures prefabricated structures, so designs had to be simple enough to package and ship anywhere in the country but suited to a sense of the Southwest.

When my shade structure design was selected for the President?EUR??,,????'???s Choice award, Poligon rewarded me with the prototype. Then Sites Southwest and myself donated the structure to Albuquerque?EUR??,,????'???s Open Space Division.

In addition to the structure itself, Sites Southwest donated volunteers to help with the landscape design and planting. In turn, the city donated the site, built a concrete pad, and added a picnic table to be covered with shadows cast from Scott?EUR??,,????'???s innovative structure.

Plants were donated by Bernardo Beach, a boutique nursery specializing in native plants and owned by the distinguished author Judith Phillips, and by the wholesale nursery Trees of Corrales, specializing in plants adapted to high desert climates. Plants were selected for habitat value and drought tolerance, including three leaf sumac, New Mexico olive, golden current and snowberry.

On April 14, volunteers from Sites Southwest and employees from Open Space assembled the structure and planted donated shrubs. Although Scott had designed the structure to capture the essence of the American West, as the structure went up, he was surprised at just how well it fit in with its surroundings.

Flanked by dramatic views of the mountains to the east, the bosque and river to the north and south (and extinct volcanoes) and quickly-growing Westside development, the steel structure holds its own with bold purple latillas, cr????+me-colored posts and corbels with laser-cut rosettes. The shade structure adds an important amenity to one of Albuquerque?EUR??,,????'???s most precious and best-used open spaces.

The design of the structure, now called the Santa Fe Trellis, takes its inspiration from the ramadas found at Taos Pueblo and the post-and-beam construction found in historic Spanish-era old towns, similar to those found in both Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Now an integral part of the bosque trail system, the shade structure will be maintained by the City of Albuquerque Open Space crews. So its future is bright, if shady.