MODERNISM IN THE MEADOW CITY?

Las Vegas, New Mexico, known as the ‘Meadow City,’ is famous for its 900+ historic buildings—Victorian, Queen Anne, Italianate, Prairie, Beaux Arts, and Spanish-Mexican adobe styles across “new” and “old” town, or "east" and "west" as locals know it. You get a good sampling of historic architecture driving through the residential areas of 6th-8th streets, and of course, on Bridge Street and the plaza itself.

But modernist architecture? Pues, qué es eso?

On a recent weekend trip back to Las Vegas to visit friends and family, while exploring the NM Highlands University campus, I found it—midcentury details hiding in plain sight: clean lines, bold geometry, warm brick, breeze block, tiled pops of orange and teal, and original light fixtures if you look closely.

The Music Building (below) stood out with its folded-plate roofline, expansive windows, and light fixtures. I would have loved to have seen the inside, but alas, it was a weekend and it was all locked up.

It seems like most of the remaining modernist architecture could be seen in the residence hall buildings built in the early to mid 1960s. The newer dorms style seemed more of a generic, pseudo-New Mexico/territorial aesthetic. Below is a sampling of the older modernist dorm buildings with their beautiful reddish-browns and crisp lines and details.

A now-abandoned building (below), which I believe formerly housed the cafeteria, still stands strong with its beautiful orange and teal tilework and brick. I try to imagine how much more impressive this structure looked before all of the windows were boarded up. These colorful brick walls would certainly qualify as an Instagrammable spot in today's vernacular, so I did manage a few selfies (and orange is my favorite color!)

After a vibrant dose of the orange and teal tilework, I was equally blown away by the massive wall of white breeze block accenting the Gregg House (married student housing) building. Double-diamond designed white concrete walls adorned the sides of several other student housing buildings, and the geometric lines of Connor Hall were also impressive. I thought the images below were particularly striking in black-and-white to emphasize the form and structure of the design.

An interesting footnote is that NMHU once had the tallest building in northern NM—a nine-story $1.2M modernist dormitory completed in 1969. It was made of brick and exposed concrete and designed by renowned Santa Fe architect, Philippe Register. The Oct 6, 1967 Las Vegas Optic also reported it would include 160 double rooms, a large dining hall and elevators. In other reading, I learned that the project took about a year longer than anticipated due to the complexity of building such a large structure.

I did manage to find an architectural rendering of the nine-story dorm building (which required a bit of restoration). And, I do actually remember the 'high-rise' structure itself during my time on campus in the early-mid 1990s. It certainly stood out in this small city where the Sangre de Cristo Mountains meet the great plains. Sadly, after about three decades of use, it was demolished in 2007 due to safety concerns.

It's interesting that I never noticed all of this modernist architecture while I was a student, especially as it was in even been in better condition and more fully utilized at the time. In my defense, I never lived on campus and spent most of my time in the psychology building at the perimeter of campus studying hard and managing a rat behavior laboratory (a story for another time). But, I’m grateful some of the modernist buildings are still standing and that I now have the lens (literal and figurative), experience and interest to appreciate it.

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Sources: Las Vegas Daily Optic: 8/3/67, 10/6/67, 10/25/67; 9/5/07