A LIVING PROJECT: Take a virtual tour of our state's important and distinctive architectural sites. Keep returning as more locations are added frequently.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Northwest New Mexico. The earliest Great Houses were begun in the mid-800s AD, and all were abandoned by 1250 AD. Chaco is the most extensive pre-European architectural site north of Mexico.
Spaceport America, located 30 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences in the Jornada del Muerto desert, is the first commercial spaceport built in the world.
The Crosby Theatre, performance venue for the Santa Fe Opera, is an open-air theatre with a unique roof structure. Another unique feature is that sunsets and summer storms can be viewed through the opening in the rear of the stage.
At five stories, the Murray Hotel was the tallest building in town, and reflected the growth spurt experienced by Silver City as it recovered from the Great Depression.
Sometime between 1 AD and 500 AD, early New Mexicans shifted from subsisting exclusively by hunting-gathering, to a seasonal mix of hunting-gathering and agriculture. Gradually, agriculture became the major strategy. New Mexicans became farmers and began to build more permanent homes and villages: New Mexico’s first architecture.
The architecture of Mesa Public Library is composed of two major elements: a long, wedge-shaped volume pointing north, and a segment of a circle that emphasizes the panorama of the Jemez Mountains.
The White Rock Visitor Center provides a gateway to near by national monuments and preserves. The building uses materials that recall natural bluffs and mountain cabins.
The Santa Fe Art Institute, designed by Legorreta and Legorreta Arquitectos, is one of the most colorful buildings in all of Santa Fe. It is an outstanding example of Mexican Minimalism architecture.
The University of New Mexico was founded in 1889 when New Mexico was still a territory of the United States. The architectural development of the central campus balances a regional, Southwestern design identity with 130 years of architectural design evolution.
Erna Fergusson Library is composed of three types of volumes: a low rectangular box; high, half-arched volumes; and a tower. Each of these shapes has a different form and function.
This house, built in 1937, was designed by John Gaw Meem, one of New Mexico’s most well-known architects of the early 20th century. It is a good example of Meem’s Territorial Revival style residences.
The three sites of this National Monument have been occupied for centuries along a trade route from the Rio Grande Valley to the Plains of New Mexico. They also have the remains of some of the oldest Spanish Mission Churches in the United States.
The Old Albuquerque Municipal Airport building was an important stop in the early transcontinental flights between Chicago and Los Angeles. It was the only major airport in the nation built in the Spanish Pueblo Revival style.
The architecture of ¡Explora! is colorful and playful. It beckons children of all ages to come in and have fun learning.
In the age of elaborate film palaces, the KiMo Theater fused the symbolism of Native American cultures with the exotic qualities of the Art Deco style to produce what New Mexicans call Pueblo Deco.
The Borowski Residence design emphasizes home, hearth, and light. A simple palate of materials and careful detailing are used to execute three levels of space in an unusual way.
On a hill at the edge of the Moreno Valley in northern New Mexico, two
curved, white planes soar toward the sky. Where the surfaces almost meet is the Peace
and Brotherhood Chapel, the major feature of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
The University of New Mexico’s basketball arena is known nationally for the atmosphere created by the sunken court. The noise level created at a game generated the name, “The Pit.” However, the most interesting architectural aspect of “The Pit” is the way it was built.
The tower of the Immaculate Conception Church is an orienting landmark in Downtown Albuquerque. The major features of the building are on the inside: the stained glass windows and the altarpiece.
Roosevelt Park is one of the Southwest’s best examples of New Deal Landscaping. Originally a sandy, garbage-strewn arroyo, the park design drew from English landscape imagery.
The Nob Hill District was Albuquerque’s first suburban shopping area based on the automobile. Central Avenue, a part of historic Route 66, is the backbone of this district. Catering to the 1930s residential area that developed east of UNM, the Nob Hill commercial area fostered a wide range of architectural styles.
The most well known, and perhaps the only, Venetian Gothic Revival building in New Mexico, the Occidental Life Building brings Venice to Albuquerque.
The architecture of Atrisco Heritage Academy High School is as bold and proud as were the original settlers of the Atrisco Land Grant given by King Philip II of Spain to colonists in 1598.
This handsome public building provides an important cultural focus for the developing West Side of Albuquerque.
The Lodge Resort in Cloudcroft is one of the oldest resort hotels in New Mexico and has been in operation almost continuously since 1911.
The City of Rocks State Park’s Visitor Center enhances the natural resource without competing with it. The dramatic rock façade is camouflaged to match the landscape.
The Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts appears to be more a geological find than a piece of architecture.
An innovative educational program, its architectural form, unscheduled collaboration spaces, and its colorful facades distinguish this school’s design.
This 1930 courthouse was the first one built in Albuquerque that acknowledged a southwest architectural heritage by using earth-toned exterior materials and artistic details taken from Native American motifs.
The Guide to New Mexico Architecture 