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anta Fe, New Mexico is splendid,
its landscape astonishing, and
its dominant architectural char-
acter—that of the low-slung,
earth-toned adobe—remarkably
consistent. In broader Santa Fe Valley,
however, is architect Scott Specht's exer-
cise in aesthetic liberation, a modernist
concrete monolith in the sun and shadow
of some hauntingly lovely country. Set on
a hilltop site at the mercy of wide swings
in temperature throughout the day, the
house is, as Specht describes it, a "resi-
dential reconciliation" that squares the
desire for maximum views of the Sangre
de Cristo Mountains and the Jemez Moun-
tains with the need for heavy shade and
climate protection—the conflicting forces
that drove the design.
"The house is as much a piece of land art
as it is a traditional residence," explains
Specht, founder of Specht Architects,
with offices in Austin, Texas, and New
York. "With heavy concrete walls that are
dug into the earth and extend out into
the landscape, and carefully calibrated
skylights and overhangs, it creates a
series of processions that work with the
nature of the place."
What a place. One of the most architec-
turally specific cities in the entire country,
Santa Fe's rigorous zoning strictures,
particularly in its central core, allow for
little beyond the replication of traditional
forms in a narrow range of naturalistic
hues. "Both factors were specific to
place and intended to keep new buildings
from straying too far from the vernacu-
lar, but both also worked perfectly with
our entirely new means of expression,"
says Specht, who leveraged every oppor-
tunity to create something fresh while still
acknowledging the regional ideal. Opting
to leave the roof's glue-laminated wood
beams exposed to the interior, for exam-
ple, is a feature that "strongly recalls
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