The roofs of New Mexican adobe houses are supported by wooden beams called vigas.
With its mixture of Native American, Spanish and American cultures, New Mexico has a style all its own. Its high desert, rocky plateaus and sage-covered hills are emblematic of the American Southwest, but no single image says New Mexico more clearly than a traditional adobe New Mexican house. The adobe house, however, is just one part of a long and diverse tradition of New Mexican architecture. Does this Spark an idea?
Pueblo Style
When Spanish settlers arrived in the area that would become New Mexico in the 17th century, they admired the architecture of the native Pueblo Indians, low structures made of mud mixed with straw, with flat roofs supported by heavy wooden beams called vigas. The Europeans developed their own methods of constructing similar adobe houses, using molds rather than hand-forming the adobe bricks. The combination of the Spanish and Indian techniques resulted in the Pueblo style, which was characterized by covered porches, corner fireplaces and rounded walls.
Greek Revival
When Americans began settling in New Mexico in the 19th century, they brought their own traditions with them. They often built with pitched roofs instead of flat roofs, used fired bricks rather than adobe and supported the porches of their buildings with white columns. Divided window panes in double hung windows and brick ornamentation echoed the Greek Revival style popular elsewhere, and the New Mexican version of the style became known as the Territorial style.
Italianate, Victorian and Mission Styles
Later in the 19th century, the influx of people and building materials made possible by the railroad again brought new influences to the houses of New Mexico. From the East came the complex ornamentation of Victorian and Italianate styles, and from the West came the white stucco and red clay tile roofs of California's Spanish Mission Revival style. As with every previous introduction of new styles in the region, traditional New Mexican architecture was augmented and modified by the new building methods, from sloped metal roofs to eastern-style porches.
Pueblo Revival
After the turn of the 20th century, renewed interest in traditional styles brought New Mexican architecture back to its roots. Pueblo and Territorial styles saw a resurgence in popularity, and Santa Fe in particular embraced its architectural heritage. The city's trademark style -- exemplified by adobe walls, flat roofs, exposed vigas, hive-shaped kiva fireplaces and shady porches, or portales, supported by simply ornamented wooden posts -- came to represent New Mexico's unique culture and tradition.
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