I recently saw the article Architect focuses on Ohkay Owingeh homes
in the Santa Fe Real Estate Guide,
a monthly publication of the Santa Fe New Mexican.
The article was authored by the real estate guide's editor Paul Weideman,
who has done a terrific job with the monthly publication,
as well as write articles on architecture.
Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo is well over 600 years old
and lies on the banks of the Rio Grande River in northern New Mexico.
What caught my attention was that instead of using grant moneys
to build new, conventionally built, single family homes,
as has been done in the past with HUD money,
the emphasis here is on rehabilitation of existing old adobe homes,
as was noted by the architect Jaime Blosser,
who has done a groundbreaking job on this project.
As The AIA Santa Fe chapter noted in giving the project an Honor Award
“The brilliance of this plan is that it preserves a national historic treasure,
not by freezing it in time,
but by encouraging it to thrive as a natural evolving community.”
Wow, the concept of letting historical structures
"thrive as a natural evolving community" (note the word evolving),
must have the historical preservation community up in arms.
You may detect a hint of derision
towards the preservation police in my comments.
Please read the whole article
by clicking the first link at the top of this page.