MetroABQ Blog

The MetroABQs Indian Public Health Service Hospital is an excellent Art Deco building, hidden in plain sight along Lomas Blvd, east of UNM Hospital. The view, above, is from across Johnson Field on the UNM Campus.

In the MetroABQ area, we are lucky to enjoy a bunch of Art Deco building designs. The ABQ Federal Building, Maisels Trading Post, Wrights Trading Post, the Kimo Theatre, the El Rey Theatre, & the Indian Public Health Services building are the best examples.

At the IHS Hospital, below, is the ornate furnace stack protrudes close to 50 feet above the building. Notice the arrow motif that runs up the stack, culminating with an inlay arrowhead. Below that is detailed terra cotta ornament rising up from the window, joining the textured roofline.

The Indian Public Health Service building, originally built in 1934 as a tuberculosis sanatorium, was designed by Hans Stamm, to consider the Southwests unique heritage and environment in the design of the building. According to the Art Deco Society of New Mexico, the lobby of the building has stenciled motifs on the ceiling, a cornice frieze, and floor designs.

In Plain Sight. I have passed by the ABQ Indian Public Health Building just east of UNM Hospital for two decades, and only recently noticed it. It sits discreetly back from Lomas Blvd, and a parking structure was unfortunately added to the front of the building in the 1980s, obscuring the original entrance.

The Art Deco Society of New Mexico put together an Albuquerque Tricentennial Pueblo Deco Tour in 2005. It begins in the Central Business District downtown, & proceeds east to the Indian Public Health Service building. For the self-guided walking/bicycling tour brochure, click: Art Deco Society of New Mexico Pueblo Deco Tour

A cool building nearby that looks like a sailing-ship & mimics the Art Deco-style, is the recently-built University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) & the UNM School of Medicine. Those images are below.