Taos Architectural Styles

So there are seven major styles of historic architecture present in Taos today. (With many new ones as well). Each of them is more fully described at the link on the name. ; )

Puebloan

 

Spanish Colonial

 

Franco- and American

 

Territorial

 

Victorian

 

Railroad and California Gold Rush

 

Spanish Pueblo and Mission Revival

Pattern Languages

An Architectural Pattern Language is a way to get beyond style, beyond cliché... to the heart of a place.It talks about values. It talks about community. It talks about form. It talks about energy and flow - whether it be pedestrian or vehicle traffic, or actual water... It also talks about spirit and sacredness.

In these posts we'll start to look at the architectural details in Taos where people have chosen to place value. From these, we'll start defining a language. We'll start to see beyond style... we'll start to take where we have been and build a toolbox that we can take to create something new - an architectural system of values that's of this place, this time, and reflects our values... and respects our cultural traditions too.

Here's a link to the patterns...Taos' Architectural Language

This section is in constant evolution. Come back often for updates!

Taos = A Place for SPIRIT!!!

In Taos, there is no space that does not have space for spirit.
Here's what we mean when we say that...
Even terrible walls have niches for paintings, santos, or offerings...

Trashcans?!

Yep, Taos even has rad trashcans about. (This is a page just for fun...)

Canales (What?)

Canales (pronounced can-all-ays) are the old form ofroof drains. They are all over Taos! Some are pretty, some are basic. Here are some of the best of them...

THIS PAGE CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION! 
Look for new photos to be added in the next 3 weeks!

 

 

Window Shading Devices

Here are some of the "coolest" (pun intended) ways to shade your windows, Taos style...

THIS PAGE CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION! 
Look for new photos to be added in the next 3 weeks!

 

Windows

Taos has a vast and eclectic collection of really neat windows.
Here are a few favorites.

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Look for new photos to be added in the next 3 weeks!

Foundations and Buttresses

Sometimes Taos' foundations want to be exposed. Ususally this is when they are constructed of stone. But sometimes when there are other materials too.

Another thing Toas is known for is the visibility of the extra supports for the tall adobe walls. Usually these buyttresses are only present when a wall is taller than 10 feet above grade.

Here are a few examples of these cool architectural phenomenon...

THIS PAGE CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION! 
Look for new photos to be added in the next 3 weeks!

 

Shade and the Inside/Outside Connection

Taos is known for its portals (pronounced poor-talls), where light and dark intermingle to provide shade and a place that is both, and neither, inside and out. Here are some of our favorites.

Roof Shapes

There are two predominant roof shapes in Taos. Flat - from the historic pueblo and Spanish settlerment, and peaked - which evolved in the Territorial period when shingle and metal roofs became available.

The flat roofs are actually not flat, but pitch at a minimum of 1/8" per foot (the same minimum pitch for a green roof installation). Peaked roofs are of "mid-pitch," usually with slopes between 1":12" to 1":1.5" rise to run.

The peaked roof was much more common after the late-19th century in and around Taos, (once metal roofs became available it was easier to use a pitched roof to address snowfall, rather than shoveling the roof which is required for flat roofs). In this, an entirely new style of architecture was born - a modern version of Territorial revival with simplified details on adobe now called the Northern New Mexico style.

Rhythm and Symmetry

The Taos Historic District possess a certain rhythm as it is a commercial space of aligned and similar buildings, but that rhythm can be broken up by buildings that are entirely different too, as it is on the south side of the main plaza where the La Fonda and the Taos Theater building burst into the sky in a rhythm of non-perfectly-symmetrical massing.

La Loma Plaza is nearly unrecognizable in its proportions and rhythm because of all the additions and new constructions that were allowed into the central open courtyard over time. (Let's hope that doesn't happen elsewhere.)

Symmetry appears to be most important on public buildings and the older churches in Taos. Even on the main plaza, buildings may have doors centered or open on a side, and windows are placed where they are most needed, though most commonly in a symmetrical way. Portal colonnades are usually symmetrical.

Scale and Proportion

Taos' historic district, like much of New Mexico, has two MAJOR components that determine much of how its buildings appear. First, it is based on an architectural form that is exteremely limited and specific in design - adobe. Historically, adobe walls which extended more that 10' vertically MUST be at least two wythes of adobe thick. In even taller structures, like the San Francisco church at Ranchos, the walls are at least 3 wythes (24 inches or more) thick and have massive buttressing at the corners to accept the load of the roof as it pushes out on the walls. Also, the church is always the tallest structure in old New Mexican towns.

The second determinant of the size of buildings on the historic district is the length of available vigas at the time of construction and the ability to transport them. In my own home off Padre Martinez, the length of vigas they could get into town in 1810 was 15', and that's how deep all our rooms are (15' minus the wall widths). The vigas are exposed to the rooms, and sometimes to the porches and exterior walls.

Lessons Learned: To design in keeping with this understanding of scale means that buildings in the historic district should not be taller than churches - so no more than 3 stories tall, should be constructed of adobe*, and should be built in keeping with the capacity of their roof structure, which should be exposed. The width of the building should not be vastly different than its neighbors.

*It is our opinion that non-adobe structures that look like real adobe structures are sad. They use more materials than they should, offer no real historic value, require extensive mechanical systems to operate comfortably, and disrespect the traditions of wall depth and positive/negative space balance of our historic buildings. We should never glue on parts of buildings that were once purposeful to make something modern appear more historic. This is a waste of resources and trivializes the value of our remaining historic buildings.

Orientation

Buildings built in Taos prior to the 20th century were oriented to solar or stellar objects (i.e. churches as well as the pueblo).

Many buildings in Spanish times were built the depth of locally-available vigas, and started out as linear structures - lineas - designed to be added to. Later additions made the structures C, L, H, or  - the ultimate - O shaped.

Many of the earliest buildings in Taos were built along the mesatop that the town actually sits on. If you want to imagine Taos as it was a hundred years ago, visit the southern side of the parking structure to the south of Alhambra furnishings on Paseo Sur and look down onto what would have been agricultural fields, fed by a spring just below (near where the dry cleaners is now). Taos was a place who primary motivation was security, and building the town at this high location would have afforded not only that, but great views and access to more plentiful clean air.

Buildings on the periphery of town were oriented to the paths which led to market, as well as the fields during this period.

Buildings built in Taos during the 20th century are almost exclusively oriented to the street upon which they front. After 1960's, buildings started turning away from the street. As more research became available about passive solar design, many realized that a southeast orientation was warmest in winter and coolest in summer, and therefore quite a few buildings built during and after played with solar orientations.

Lessons learned: For design in the historic district, plans should orient as their neighbors do, but maximize the use of natural passive solar devices to minimize energy consumption and maximize occupant comfort. New buildings outside the historic district should be oriented on passive-solar advantage.

Townscape

Plaza North

It is easy to see which parts of Taos are the oldest "town" structures. The first commercial buildings, or those that replaced them to be more accurate since the town burned many times during the early 20th century, are built with a zero-lot line on the front, or built - including portals and walkways - all the way up to the "front" property line on the street. The best place to see this is the main Plaza, where the portals are connected and each building falls into line behind them like a row of soldiers.

Off the main Plaza, the setbacks start to differentiate, and building facades may be placed up to 5' off the property line or sidewalk. Many of the shopping district's structures borrow from the old tradition of haciendas and have an open courtyard - a plazuela - around which the rest of the building's shallow structures ring and into which they open. This indicates a special form of environmental awareness - one that pre-dates everything you see in Taos these days save the Martinez Hacienda and a few other structures. These open courtyards planted with trees and flowers provide a place of beauty, a place to gather, a place of shade, better oxygen, and a place for the well to reside that is central to all users. They also act as a form of air conditioning, as the humid cool shaded center allows cooler air to move through the portals and thusly, the buildings which open onto them. You can see these at Brazos and Ruffin on Bent Street across from the John Dunn Shops, at Taos Blue on Bent Street, at the Wenglert Patio and Kit Carson Home on Kit Carson, at Starr Interiors just south of the Taos Inn, at the cute compound of casitas in Casa Baca Plaza at the corner of Paseo and Queznel, at LaLana Wools/Steven Kilborn as well as Plaza Flores on Paseo Norte just north of Grahams Grille, and some smaller plazuelas at la Loma Plaza and along Ledoux.

Kilborn Plazuela

The Wenglert Patio on Kit Carson

The Taos Inn's interior is one such place that's been transformed from a plazuela into an inside space. That's part of what makes the bar so magnificent.

Inside the Adobe Bar at the Taos Inn, this "lighthouse" structure covers the old well, now converted to a fountain.

 Beyond the main shopping streets, buildings can be anywhere between 10' off the front property line to 50' off the property line. Most often, if there is a setback at all there is also a fence along the property line. Many times the fence is the same material as the house and features a vehicular and a pedestrian gate.

Lessons learned: To design a new infill for any of these areas of town, it is recommended that new construction be placed somewhere between the furthest building setback and the closest of the 2 neighboring buildings adjacent to either side and the 3 closest buildings across the street.

Posts and Columns

So by far the most common form of post or column in Taos is round. Round posts are found on every building on the plaza and most of the buildings in the commercial district. Here are just a few examples.

Flowing Soft Edges

It is difficult to say what may be the single most important feature of Taos' non-style-based architectural language. If there is one detail that comes out above the rest, it may well be soft flowing edges.
The desert has a way of reducing a line from something prefect to something sinuous. Our friend the line will ALWAYS succumb to the hot western winds of summer and the cold northern winds of winter, and the scorching sun... to be transformed. Early designers here knew that, and in fact, embraced it, creating an architecture that has goes with the flow. Here are some of our favorite examples.

First, from the Pueblo...

Then, From Ranchos Church

 

Then, from the Historic District...

And sending a little shout-out to our friends at the Taos Opera Institute and the exquisite Dome Home on the Mesa.

Finally, from the old Harwood, juxtaposed to the hard edges of its new addition.

Texture

"Well building hath three conditions: firmness, commodity, and delight." - from Sir Henry Wotton's version of the Ten Books of Architecture. This means... quality of construction, usefulness, and well, delight... which primarily refers to beauty. In Taos, there would be a long list of attributes which are required for something to be beautiful. One of those things would be TEXTURE. Even decrepit old buildings that are literally falling down are beautiful here.

Security

I am not sure if its possible to find more numerous or beautiful details in the American Southwest which deal directly with security. In keeping with an attention to the love of details rich in color and texture common here, here are some of the security features you'll find in Taos...

Massing

Massing is the relationship of parts to the whole. It is how architects manipulate the size and manner of forms to create a sense of something "more." In Taos, massing has been a critical component to architectural design for more than 300 years.

Light

Light turns us on and off. Its shadow can bring cool, or fear. Its brightness can bring warmth, or...fear.
In Taos, during the winter, the light is an asset and an ally. In the summer, she can be our enemy.