High Desert Rooftop
I was recently honored to work with clients who purchased a fantastic home in the High Desert Community, east of Tramway Blvd, on the edge of the Elena Gallegos Open Space. The views from the rooftop balcony were amazing, especially when the clouds rolled over the top edge of the Sandia Mountains. Our goal was to discover a home that allowed for these incredible vistas. The fun was in finding such a place; we visited dozens of homes until we found our way to High Desert, and this roof. Being in a place to take this photo is an aspect of my job as a Realtor that I enjoy immensely. Come and work with me, and let’s find these places together.

Sandia Mountains from a High Desert community rooftop

Art Deco is an ornamental, lavish style which was influenced by Cubism. It utilized new materials like stainless steel, ebony, aluminum, plastics and wood inlays, and was patterned after trapezoidal, zigzagged, geometric, and jumbled shapes. This highly stylized creative form was a reaction to the austerity imposed on the world by WWI. As F. Scott Fitzgerald said, it was developed by ‘all the nervous energy stored up and expended in the War.’ 

Indian Health Services Building Art Deco Architectural Style

In Plain Sight. I have passed by the ABQ Indian Public Health Building just east of UNM Hospital for two decades, and only recently noticed it. It sits discreetly back from Lomas Blvd, and a parking structure was unfortunately added to the front of the building in the 1980′s, obscuring the original entrance.

The Art Deco Society of New Mexico put together an Albuquerque Tricentennial Pueblo Deco Tour in 2005. It begins in the Central Business District downtown, and proceeds east all the way to the Indian Public Health Service building. For the self-guided walking/bicycling tour brochure, click on this link:
Art Deco Society of New Mexico Pueblo Deco Tour

Art Deco Indian Health Services Building Map

Art Deco in ABQ

I am excited looking forward as we move further into 2012! As always, there are tons of great things to see and do in the MetroABQ area, no matter the economy. I love the unique local ABQ architecture that can be seen in plain sight, or discovered in the hidden corners of the city. I also enjoy the numerous Green Spaces that surround us in this Southwest desert city. Throughout 2012, I will continue to focus on these, and other aspects of ABQ life. Join me!

Art Deco Skyline - Viewed From UNM's Johnson Field, the Indian Health Building

Art Deco Arrow Motif adorns the ABQ Indian Health Services BuildingArt Deco Terra Cotta window detail

 

Art Deco Terra Cotta window detail

Green Spaces!
The MetroABQ area has them aplenty! In a survey by the nonprofit group The Trust for Public Land, ABQ ranked as the top mid-sized US city in total acres of parkland per capita. We are in the top 25 of cities for number of playgrounds, too. ABQ ranked in the top in other Green Space categories. Check out all the details below:

MetroABQ Green Spaces
Although we live on the edge of one of the four deserts in the western United States, fortunately the MetroABQ area has much more than its share of Green Open Spaces. According to a survey by The Trust for Public Land, 28% of the metro area consists of public park space; that’s the most parkland of any mid-sized city in the U.S.  We ranked high in the number of playgrounds compared to other cities, and we also landed in the top ten for cities with the most dog parks, with 12 dog-friendly parks scattered across the metro. ABQ’s Old Town Plaza made the list, as one of the oldest parks in the country, created in 1760. Finally, our Balloon Fiesta Park is one of the most visited parks, enjoyed by over 1,300,000 people a year.

     Recently, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar christened the MetroABQ area’s newest addition to the park system, by introducing the Middle Rio Grande Wildlife Refuge (MRGWR), which encompasses 570 acres along the Rio Grande in the South Valley.

One of Numerous MetroABQ Green Spaces

 Above: Embudo Hills Park, east of Tramway Blvd and on the edge of the ABQ Open Space. Complete with an off-road bike trail, the Open Space runs along the Sandia Mountains, from Four Hills up the Sandia Heights.
Below: Downtown’s Robinson Park is home to one of the largest Farmer’s Markets in the city.

Downtown ABQ's premier Green Space - Robinson Park

View of 416 Iron Ave SE, ABQ New Mexico

I am honored to have just listed a wonderful 1890′s Victorian home in Huning Highlands. The home is at 416 Iron Ave SE, between Edith and Arno. It is a simplified Tudor Revival, with great Victorian-era interior features, including arched doorways, an ornate brick fireplace with two side multi-paned windows. built-in hall cabinets and drawers, original transoms & radiators, hardwood floors and original tiled bathroom with cove shower. I love the rare breakfast room which captures the east light and south winter sun; you enter through a low cove doorway from the kitchen. This historic house is truly a unique find! Historic Huning Highlands Area.

416 Iron SE Bathroom TileVictorian Hinges

Victorian Hinges

Moulding Detail

Patterned wood shingles shaped into varying design--in this case hexagonals, sometimes teardrops, and a front porch (here, converted to a possible 'sleeping porch') are other features of the American Arts and Crafts, or Bungalow style. Click for full size image

As the city of ABQ grew up around Huning Highlands–specifically, in the 1920′s, as houses began to spread up the mesa east from downtown, creating the Spruce Park, Silver Hill, UNM-area neighborhoods, Nob Hill, Ridgecrest and beyond–Huning Highlands lost some of its appeal.

Appreciation for the area peaked again when folks began moving to ABQ to fight Tuberculosis, hoping the warm dry air would help their breathing. The larger homes in Huning Highlands, along with numerous porches converted into open-air ‘sleeping porches’, and the proximity to the many hospitals, helped spur the movement back.

Now, as ABQ is seriously pushing against its borders, and wildly fluctuating and permanently expensive gas prices have people concerned, the need for closer/infill living is upon us. These factors, and an appreciation for ABQ’s older buildings, have also spurred a renewed interest in the Huning Highlands area.

The area is experiencing a renaissance, a wonderful mix of the old and new: it has some of the most innovative urban infill projects at its borders, existing comfortably close to some of the oldest homes east of Old Town. The addition of the newly-minted EDo area–just East of DOwntown–with the refurbished Old ABQ High Gym lofts buildings, and other townhome/condo infill projects, has made Huning Highlands one of the most interesting areas of the city–urban, walkable, architecturally magnificant, historic, and creatively modern.

All photos employ very high chimneys, (wraparound) front porches, steeply pitched roofs, and prominent front-facing gables, with small attic windows. The two examples below also use front porch railing balustrades and porch columns for support. Directly below is also a great Queen Anne-style balcony above the top floor.

An example of prominent chimneys in Victorian-style homes east of Downtown--EDo

Huning Highlands Brick Queen Anne Home - Click for full size image

Prominent Front Porch and Tall Chimneys - Click for full size image

Huning Highlands Victorian House with Round Tower - Click for full size image

Well, not quite. Huning Highlands was really one of ABQ’s first suburbs. The city of ABQ had been in existance for hundreds of years–since 1706–well before the railroad folks came and began developing the area. However, Huning Highlands was the first platted subdivision beyond the Downtown area.
Franz Huning, one of the big local developers in ABQ in the late 1870′s, made a deal with the railroad to pass through ABQ. The plan was to build the tracks a few miles from the Rio Grande, to avoid washouts when the river flooded. Huning and friends, including Elias Stover and attorney William Hazeldine, began buying up land around the proposed railroad right-of-way, which would later become known as the Huning Highlands. If you are familiar with the area, you know that Stover and Hazeldine are two streets just south of Huning Highlands. The area was then developed by Huning, to begin to accomodate some of the many people moving to ABQ from the east in the late 1800′s.

These eastern settlers brought with them the prevaling building styles of the mid-19th century: Victorian architecture, and all the sub-categories, including Queen Anne and Tudor Revival.

American Arts and Crafts (Bungalow) style is considered a cousin to Victorians.

Unique to ABQ, the Huning Highlands area consists mostly of Queen Anne style homes, like the home to the right, practically hidden behind the perhaps 100 year old canopy of trees. The round tower, brick and wood frame and prominent front porch, covering part or all of the front facade, are prominent Queen Anne features.

The photo below, 416 Iron Ave SE, can be described as a simplified Tudor Revival style, with the vertical bracing in the gable and steeply pitched roof, imitating a medieval English cottage or country house.

The Vertical Bracing and Curved Roofline are indications of Victorian style - Click for full size image

Although flat-roofed and stuccoed like many other MetroABQ buildings of that era–like Spanish Pueblo Revival and Territorial styles–Streamline Moderne features rounded corners, cylindrical forms, long horizontal windowing, flow lines, port hole windows and tube railings; also often included are corner windows and cantilevered roofs.

Streamline Moderne Home in Nob Hill

Streamline Moderne UNM Children's Hospital

Streamline Locomotive

Streamline Moderne Style in Nob Hill

MetroABQ Styles: Streamline Moderne, also referred to as Art Moderne, was a late Art Deco design style which emerged during the 1930s in response to the harsh economic times of the Great Depression. Its architectural style emphasizes aerodynamic curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. These uniquely-designed homes were built in the Metro area between 1935 – WWII; a good sampling can be found around the University of New Mexico.

Above, the nautical porthole window is a prominent feature, along with subdued earth-tone flow lines, horizontal windowing and glass block windows.

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An example of the flowlines for a Streamline Moderne home in the UNM area

With the country going through the worst economic times ever, the Art Moderne style was streamlined–gone was any unnecessary ornament. Sharp angles were replaced with simple, aerodynamic curves. Exotic woods and stone were replaced with cement and glass.

The home to the left has a simple but prominent aqua streamlined flowline accent above the door across the front. Below, notice the flat roof, flow lines, rounded corners, tube railing, corner windows & a simple cantilever porch roof.

Streamline Moderne: Flat roof, flow lines, rounded corners, tube railing, corner windows & a simple cantilever porch roof.