A LIVING PROJECT: Take a virtual tour of our state’s important and distinctive architectural sites. Keep returning as more locations are added frequently. If you enjoy the guide and want to continue supporting the addition of new sites and publications, please consider making a donation using the donate button above.

Author: violetzolt

  • Albuquerque Museum

    Albuquerque Museum

    The Albuquerque Museum has served as a major attraction for the city since it outgrew its first home, at the Sunport, becoming more dynamic over the years . . .

  • Manzano Mesa Multigenerational Center

    Manzano Mesa Multigenerational Center

    Designed to accommodate a wide variety of uses—from fitness to art classes and more—for citizens of all ages, Manzano Mesa was the first such facility . . .

  • Isotopes Park

    Isotopes Park

    Isotopes Park is a near 100% replacement of the original Albuquerque Dukes stadium (Albuquerque Sports Stadium) on this site. . . .

  • Del Norte High School (revitalization) and Nex+Gen Academy

    Del Norte High School (revitalization) and Nex+Gen Academy

    The intersection of Montgomery and San Mateo Boulevards is one of the busiest in Albuquerque. . . .

  • Pete V. Domenici U.S. Courthouse and McClellan Park

    Pete V. Domenici U.S. Courthouse and McClellan Park

    The Pete V. Domenici U.S. Courthouse, a major public building in Albuquerque, employs time-honored Southwestern architectural traditions . . .

  • Bart Prince Residence and Studio Gallery

    Bart Prince Residence and Studio Gallery

    This architect’s unusual residence and separate studio gallery is unique in Albuquerque. The visual complexity of the residence’s unique series of volumes. . . .

  • “Big I” Interchange Landscape

    “Big I” Interchange Landscape

    The “Big I,” the interchange of I-25 and I-40, located in the center of Albuquerque, is greatly enhanced by one of the largest landscape projects in the state, over 100 acres….

  • Botanic Garden (ABQ BioPark)

    Botanic Garden (ABQ BioPark)

    The ABQ BioPark’s Botanic Garden opened in 1996; the site, shared with the facility’s Aquarium, fills 32 acres along the Rio Grande….

  • Open Space Visitor Center (City of Albuquerque)

    Open Space Visitor Center (City of Albuquerque)

    Albuquerque’s Open Space Visitor Center introduces visitors to the Rio Grande Bosque, nature-related art, a native-plant demonstration garden, agricultural fields, the Piedras Marcadas Pueblo archaeological site, and stunning views….

  • Main Library (Albuquerque Public Library)

    Main Library (Albuquerque Public Library)

    George Pearl, FAIA, the designer of Albuquerque Public Library’s current Main Library, was a leader in the effort to find a modern architecture that spoke of the special qualities of the Southwest, what we now call “Regional Modernism.”…

  • Park Square

    Park Square

    Park Square is considered one of Albuquerque’s purest examples of Modernism in a commercial high-rise. The building exhibits many Modernist design principles: expressed structure, a minimal palette of materials, consistency of façade design on a grid, and well-studied proportions….

  • El Vado Auto Court

    El Vado Auto Court

    One of the best examples of a pre-WWII tourist court on Route 66, El Vado Auto Court was built in 1937 in anticipation of the rerouting of the historic road . . .

  • Old Albuquerque High School

    Old Albuquerque High School

    The Old Albuquerque High School complex dates to 1914. Its Gothic Revival style appearance—dark red brick, white trim, peaked pediments, and grouped windows—was the choice of many educational institutions across the country in the early 1900s. . . .

  • St. Paul Lutheran Church

    St. Paul Lutheran Church

    Unique among the city’s churches for its triangular design, St. Paul Lutheran Church overlooks Albuquerque’s downtown from the edge of the East Mesa. . . .

  • Hotel Andaluz  (Hilton)

    Hotel Andaluz (Hilton)

    Hotel magnate Conrad Hilton was a native of San Antonio, New Mexico. Owner of several hotels in Texas, Hilton made this his first after the Great Depression and the first modern, high-rise hotel in the state….

  • Berthold Spitz Residence

    Berthold Spitz Residence

    This Prairie-style home marked the beginning of a new century….

  • Simms Building

    Simms Building

    The Simms Building was the first International Style, high-rise building in New Mexico. It was representative of the post–World War II coming-of-age of Albuquerque as a modern city. . . .

  • First Plaza Galleria

    First Plaza Galleria

    Designed by famous Chicago architect, Harry Weese, in a “u” shape, this building at the eastern edge of downtown Albuquerque opens its plaza to a view of the Sandia Mountains. . . .

  • Huning Highlands Historic District

    Huning Highlands Historic District

    The Huning Highlands subdivision, Albuquerque’s first suburb, is located roughly between Broadway on the west, I-25 on the east, Iron on the south, and Martin Luther King on the north. The subdivision was established in 1880 . . .

  • National Hispanic Cultural Center (District)

    National Hispanic Cultural Center (District)

    The National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) is dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and advancement of Hispanic culture, arts, and humanities. The campus is composed of five buildings and a number of landscape features. The new buildings and landscapes are contemporary interpretations of a variety of styles related to the U.S. Southwest, Latin America, and the…

  • Gutiérrez-Hubbell House

    Gutiérrez-Hubbell House

    El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (the Royal Road) stretched approximately 1600 miles from Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, just north of Santa Fe, and was the most important trade route in the region in the 1600s and 1700s. . . .

  • Rio Grande Nature Center and Preserve

    Rio Grande Nature Center and Preserve

    The Rio Grande Valley is a major migratory bird flyway and the Albuquerque Bosque is part of one of the longest Cottonwood forests in the world. As architect Antoine Predock has said of this site, “The building can be thought of as a permanent viewing blind set up with controlled apertures offering specific views of…

  • La Luz

    La Luz

    This residential complex is situated on a sloping plane with breathtaking views of the Rio Grande Bosque and Sandia Mountains. . . .

  • Los Poblanos Historic Inn

    Los Poblanos Historic Inn

    Los Poblanos is considered one of architect John Gaw Meem’s residential masterpieces. . . .

  • First National Bank

    First National Bank

    At 141′ high with nine stories, the First National Bank was Albuquerque’s first skyscraper. In 1917, James Madison Raynolds became president of the bank and hired Trost & Trost to design the new bank building. . . .