This performing arts center is influenced by the “performance” and qualities of the surrounding context, including sight lines, hills, mountains, arroyos, and local petrified forests.  The landscape of the site is so dynamic and tells so much about the area that it was only right to have the landscape define the project.The petrification process can easily be compared to the training process students will undergo as the Santa Fe Workshop.  One starts off fresh and inexperienced,  undergoes a transformation and then emerges as a new, skilled body.  This process also influences the placement of program on the site. “Transformation” areas, such as studios, are located on inclined areas and the performance theater is located on top of a hill to represent the ascension to experience and knowledge.  The views surrounding the site were also very influential.  Defined axes on the site were created with each one pointed in the direction on a mountain or landmark in the  distance.  The buildings interact in various ways with these axes.  The forms are made to feel as if they are apart of the landscape.