by Matthew Chavez
Daily Lobo
More than three years ago, at the start of the Student Union Building's renovation, UNM Art Professor Basia Irland made a unique proposal to the SUB's architectural planners.
With New Mexico's growing water scarcity in mind, Irland proposed construction of an artistic water gathering system on the northwest corner of the SUB that would put some of Albuquerque's rare precipitation to good use.
Irland and the SUB's architectural firm, Van H. Gilbert, incorporated an ancient technology called rainwater harvesting into the SUB's design.
The system collects rainwater and snow runoff in a water tank atop the SUB and redirects it through a pipe for underground storage. The stored water is then distributed by a drip system to a xeric herb garden designed by Irland.
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Additional runoff is channeled from nearby sidewalks to the garden, which has lavender, rosemary, mint, sage, lemon thyme and chocolate flowers and is partially enclosed by a wall featuring tiles with the word for "water" written in many of the world's languages. Overflow water, according to the garden's built-in plaque, "circles the xeric fragrance garden in a stone swale and drains into the Rio Grande."
The SUB was Van H. Gilbert's first completed project involving rainwater harvesting. But as demand grows, it anticipates including more rainwater harvesting into its designs, said Michael Hill, Van H. Gilbert's associate who worked on the SUB.
"We are always looking for opportunities to incorporate unique features that give a project a distinctive quality," he said. "Irland's art aspect is the special part, the piping behind it is nothing out of the ordinary."
When asked why rainwater harvesting is so infrequently used in an increasingly dry New Mexico, Hill said, "It has not become the 'standard' approach as of yet, but UNM and others are requesting it be incorporated, so it will change."
Irland said she thinks it would be good if every building on campus had some kind of water harvesting system.
Irland said she first learned of rainwater harvesting as a child on her grandparents' farm in Texas.
"My grandparents used to use rainwater harvesting for almost all of their needs," she said. "They had a well, but it was almost always dry."
Subsequently, Irland said her interest in water as an aesthetic and social subject developed into a determined passion reflected in all of her work. Her multimedia sculpture "Desert Fountain," a permanent fixture of the Albuquerque Museum of Art, exemplifies her recurrent, innovative combination of art and water issues. Fastened with a rainwater harvesting component similar to the SUB's, "Desert Fountain" collects precipitation that pours over her sculpture of bronze hands and forearms, rolls across a brick patio, and finally runs into a storm drain that eventually empties into the Rio Grande.
During periods without precipitation, an average of 307 days annually in Albuquerque, "Desert Fountain" stands silent and motionless, underscoring the importance of water in desert communities, she said.
In addition to teaching Art and Art History at UNM, Irland has participated in over 100 art exhibitions and symposia worldwide that featured her ideas, sculptures, art installations and writing.
Irland has been awarded over 30 grants to pursue her work, including a grant in 1996 from President Clinton's Council on Sustainability for work on a 5-year performance project in which volunteers from communities along the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo basin collected river samples and noted their experiences in a logbook. In 1999, the project was made into a documentary shown on PBS.
On Feb.11, Irland will present a slide lecture on her SUB project at the UNM Arts of the Americas Institute. On Feb. 12 at 11:30 a.m. Professor Irland will formally dedicate her rainwater-harvesting project at the SUB.
