MetroABQ Blog

Often called Pueblo Style, Spanish Pueblo Revival is a unique style specific to New Mexico and is also seen a little in neighboring states. The building style draws elements from both the Spanish Missions and Pueblo Indian culture, recreating the appearance of traditional adobe construction.

Built in New Mexico generally between 1925-1950, Spanish Pueblo Revival in its purest form includes numerous common elements: flat roofs, roof drains (canales), parapets, adobe-colored stucco, projecting wooden viga beams, distinctive carved or cut-out wood bracket corbels over wooden porch posts, and exposed wooden beams (lintels) over doors and windows. Parapets are barrier wall extensions, protruding above the roofline. They are used as rooftop guard-rails; in New Mexico they function well as barriers that encourage water to drain down the canales. Above is a home in Ridgecrest and below can be found in the Silver Hill Historic District.

You can see examples of these features in both houses. Notice the prominent projecting wooden viga beams; the canales draining water off the roof–the canales also shunts water away from the foundation. At top you can see the wooden lintels framing the tops of the doors and windows, and carved wooden corbels as decoration between the wooden beams supporting the covered porch. Notice the open but covered/shaded east-facing front porch in the second photo, below.