El Rancho de los Golindrinas (Ranch of the Swallows) is a living history preserve just outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. It recreates life in New Mexico back 150 years ago…or maybe more. Structures at El Rancho are original to the site or were moved there from other places in northern New Mexico. In some… Read More Discovering Places — El Rancho de los Golondrinas
I stopped off in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the way home from a short visit with friends in Colorado Springs. I didn’t know much about Las Vegas. My only experience has been stopping there momentarily on frequent Amtrak trips between Albuquerque and Kansas City. The train passengers all sit and look out the windows… Read More In Praise of Old Hotels – Las Vegas, New Mexico
John Gaw Meem was the architect largely responsible for what people think of as Southwestern or Santa Fe style. Spend time in the American Southwest and you will probably see one or two Meem buildings and many examples of what became known as Pueblo Revival style. This is not a post about John Gaw Meem… Read More Discovering Places: Coronado and Kuaua
Let me start with disclaimers. I’m pretty much writing from ignorance but I’ve been looking online and reading about Tiny Houses. I have no interest in building or selling Tiny Houses. I actually have never seen one up close nor have I been inside one. I’m not in the market for one. No one I… Read More The Tiny House Movement – Take it or Leave it?
Acoma Pueblo — “The Sky City” — is possibly the longest occupied place in America. There are other contenders, Taos Pueblo up north or the Hopi pueblos over in Arizona are also extremely old in the context of occupied Native American communities. Each of the three communities are unique in their location and position… Read More Discovering Places: Among the Ancients – Acoma
The New Mexico Architectural Foundation held its annual membership meeting at the Central and Unser Branch library in Albuquerque. We were given an overview of the design and construction phase of the library project by one of the chief architects involved and then led on a tour of the facility by the library system director.… Read More A Modern Library
Originally posted on Writer's Cramp:
The word “Surreal” comes to mind. It is an absolutely gorgeous day. A man is taking a selfie while standing in front of the rough stone obelisk that marks the spot…the very spot…where the first atomic bomb exploded. This is “ground zero” at the Trinity Site. There are thirty…
I’m posting this as a place holder as much as anything else so I can remember to go back to Silver City, New Mexico. Two weekends ago I was in Silver City with my daughter on a two-day trip down to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings. It is about a five hour drive to Silver… Read More Silver City Episode
Baroness Lucia von Borosini Batten died at the age of 93 about ten years ago. She was a local person; a socialite in her heyday. She was a German Baroness who was well off to begin with and always married men with wealth…several times…and she accumulated things. Lots of things –money was no object. Today,… Read More It’s Good to Have Money
Brick and Stone: Architecture and Preservation 