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The Ones to Watch
Not content to follow the status quo, these seven architects merge innovation with tradition, sustainability with regionality. They’re some of the most creative thinkers we’ve encountered and they’re changing the way we live in—and look at—the West

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Photos courtesy Trey Jordan Architecture

TREY JORDAN


Clients come to you for… A current, more modern expression of Santa Fe. I don’t know of any other architects in Santa Fe who are as strongly engaged in this idea of historic reference expressed in a modern way. Too often, when someone does a modern house in Santa Fe, the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater in that references to traditional details are not incorporated. I have a real reverence for the qualities and details of really beautiful historic buildings.

You’re really excited about… Getting ready to dig my teeth into a large-scale planning project just outside of Santa Fe, in Galisteo Basin. It will be a village that contains single-family home of multiple typologies—some detached, some attached, and even some townhomes. The vision is a place that’s strongly regional but also expressive of current cultural values. So you’ll see a real sensitivity to environmental impact, social consciousness, and using resources in a very efficient way. My goal is to layer on top of that a set of values that people will relate to as home.

A good building should… Age. Really good buildings that are of their time do that. “Dated” is an evil thought. I want people to look back at a building I designed and say that the building represents the cultural values of the time. That’s increasingly missing from buildings here. Historic buildings in Santa Fe are very organic structures and as a result, they show some physical wear and tear. When you don’t have that, it takes something away from the building. I try to incorporate elements that weather in a way that doesn’t compromise the thermal envelope of the building. Perhaps a yard wall that will crack and fade, or wood details that dry and warp, all in the context of a building that maintains itself beautifully.

You bring a sense of place to your designs by… Really trying to take the stuff that makes this place unique and bring it forth, sometimes in an abstract way, sometimes literally, so that it’s of its time but there’s an underlying resonance that’s old or Santa Fe.

People live behind walls here. A lot of buildings are intentionally private and mysterious. I call it “showing the bra strap” — you just see a glimpse of what’s behind the walls. Even the orientation of rooms is not always clear. The familial compounds that produced the density we have in Santa Fe also produced streetscapes that are somehow unclear in terms of where one house ends and another begins. It has almost a collage quality. I tap into that by designing buildings that continue that level of uncertainty about “what’s going on back there?” I also try to reflect the values of truly historic buildings in New Mexico, like the Martinez Hacienda in Taos. Like long walls that capture light, or the way things are framed very simply. The Santa Fe kit of parts has gotten out of hand. It’s just so cute. I can understand why people may want a corbel on top of a viga column. In the rooms I design, while they might be done in a more pared down fashion, the proportions are quite traditional. For example, I follow the old rule of thumb that rooms can be no wider than 12 to 14 feet. Why? It was the maximum distance that a log could span that two men could lift.

Your design philosophy is… To do buildings that are really strong and really quiet at the same time. It’s like one of those lenticular image prizes you used to get in a Cracker Jack box: Flip it one way and the building is a still sculpture—even the functioning parts are really quiet and still and very beautiful. Flip it the other way and the cabinets open, the wine is poured, the dog is barking and people are going in and out, and the building beautifully accommodates that, too.

VITALS: Trey Jordan, Trey Jordan Architecture, Santa Fe, NM, (505) 983-5624, treyjordan.com