The kick off to our 2024 ReVision: The Future of Santa Fe Style program series examined how the New-Old Santa Fe Exhibition of 1912 birthed a radical vision for the future of a struggling city - one that was optimistic towards development, growth, and the power of design to establish a coherent visual identity and improve civic life. Central to this was the adoption of a new Pueblo Revival Style that had emerged elsewhere - in Albuquerque, Southern Colorado, and in the National Parks - to create an exotic appeal for tourists and new transplants arriving from the east by train, and to harmonize with but not necessarily preserve the existing structures of an ancient city.
On our walk, we discussed how the Santa Fe Style played out in its first three decades - in the context of the built environment of the time and in terms of its stylistic development (or lack thereof). Traveling through downtown and close-in residential neighborhoods, we were also able to see how the style embraced new construction methods and materials, as well as new functional requirements of buildings in the early modern period.
all images displayed on this page are TAKEN BY CAROLINA MAMA.
