high desert home albuquerque, new mexico
DESCRIPTION
Gorgeous example of a Territorial Style home in Albuquerque, New Mexico - in the neighborhood called High DesertTRANSCRIPT
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By Jane Mahoney photography by Kirk GittingsBuilder: Rutledge Homes
oug and Mamie Collister could be regarded as guardians of history.
Amid the cholla and desert marigolds of the Sandia Mountain foothills,
the couple's home rises near the confluence of two arroyos once part of
a Spanish land grant dating to 1694. Inside the home, located in
Albuquerque's tony High Desert district, furnishings lovingly passed
down through the generations are nearly as old.So when it came time to build their dream home, it's little surprise that the
Collisters favored the historic Territorial style from New Mexico's pre-statehood days.
While the home's location was never a question-Doug Collister is president of the
High Desert Investment Corporation-the challenges came in modernizing a classic
style while retaining its formal, elegant charm. Mter three years in the planning
stages and nearly a year under construction by Rutledge Homes, this house succeeds
admirably on all counts.s u CAS A WINTER 432 004I
44 s u CAS A
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"We wanted a traditional Southwestern home," says Doug, a third-gen-
eration New Mexican whose grandfather, Oscar Huber, once owned the
coal mine in Madrid, N.M., along the historic Turquoise Trail. His paternal
grandfather, James Collister, founded the store Kistler Collister in 1909.
Mamie Collister comes from Chicago roots although her parents moved to
Albuquerque when she was a child. Both families shared a love for antiques,
art, and history. Many family antiques have been passed down to Doug and
Mamie, and the couple has added to the collection during their 40-year
marnage.
There's the 1950s Walter Gilbert Ironworks chandelier over the dining
room table; the fanciful bedroom suite painted with the folk art of north-
ern New Mexico commissioned in the 1930s by Doug's grandparents; the
safe from Marnie's father's office; and the lovely set of blue china passed
down by Marnie's grandmother. Outdoors is the iron garden gate given to
the couple in the first year of their marriage by Mamie's mother, a simple
reminder of a successful partnership. "We knew where many of these pieces
would go as we planned the house," Mamie recalls.
"Eclecticism is an art in itself, and here it works well," says interior
The Collister residence maintains the formal boxiness of classic Territorial style. The roofline seems tomirror Sandia Crest. Inside, the off-angle room shapes break up the space in contemporary ways.
designer Patti Hoech of Patrician Design. Hoech had the formidable task of bringing together
furnishings ranging from a 17th-century Spanish Colonial bench to a 150-year-old clock res-
cued from a stable in England. Colorful painted transom windows salvaged from the dining
room of the Alvarado Hotel blend beautifully with a game table inherited from Mamie's grand-
parents. "When a family has such a sense of history, it brings a tremendous amount of soul
to the home," says Hoech.
Revered New Mexico architect John Gaw Meem updated traditional Territorial style during
the 1920s, but the Collisters knew their design would need to accommodate site challenges and
to exploit new building technology and stunning panoramas. Within 5,000 square feet, the home
needed intimate areas for family, formal entertaining centers inside and outside, a private guest
wing, and expanses of wall and lighting to highlight the Collisters' art and antique collection.
Home designer Jim Beverly worked with the Collisters to come up with the design. "The
Collisters recognized that the Territorial style has survived the test of time in New Mexico,"
Beverly says. "It remains crisp, has a certain formality that Pueblo or contemporary styles lack, yet
its gracious portals keep it ever human in scale. They also appreciated the importance of under-
stating ornamentation and the correctness of proportion necessary to properly execute this style."
During the home-building process, Doug enjoyed
researching the architectural history of New Mexico's
territorial beginnings. He learned that the arrival of
saw mills, brick kilns, and eventually the railroad has-
tened the building of a new style of residences thatreferenced Victorian homes back East but added a
unique New Mexico flavor. By the late 1800s, lum-
ber, once hand-hewn, could be mass produced local-
ly and used in square vigas and window and door
trim. Glass, still a precious commodity, opened up
dark interiors. Brick coping defined flat roofs and
slowed the deterioration of adobe, as well as provided
a new flooring material. White trim inside and out
brought a crispness to Territorial style.
"We wanted something with these formal touches,
yet a home adapted to contemporary materials and
shapes," says Doug. Foremost, the family wanted a
home that captured the expansive views afforded by the
High Desert location. Indeed, most rooms offer views in
multiple directions, be they of Sandia Crest, Bear
Canyon, Pino Canyon, or the lights of the city with
Mount Taylor in the distance. "It's like looking out at aContinued on page 70
48 s u CAS A / WINTER 2 004
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70 s u WINTER 2 0 0 4CAS A I
Time-tested TerritorialContinued from page 48
picture," says Mamie, standing at the
kitchen sink in front of an expansive view
of Sandia Crest. In keeping with
Territorial style's emphasis on proportion,
the Collisters opted for multiple divided
and varying-sized windows trimmed in
white rather than large picture windows."We tried to keep things in the ver-
nacular of the period," says Doug, "but
we didn't go to extremes to be realistic."
That statement perhaps best sums up the
Collisters' approach to their home's
design. For example, a traditional
Territorial home is built in rectangular
forms, but the Collisters' building site
lent itself to views on angles. "Many of
our rooms are at 45-degree angles to the
windows," Doug explains. "The spine of
the house was changed without it being
too apparent on the exterior. Inside, wethink it adds some interest to the rooms."
The flooring material signaled anoth-
er departure from traditional Territorial
style. Rather than brick, the Collisters
chose a volcanic, igneous stone from
Mexico known as porphyry. Interior
designer Hoech describes it as "similar to
brick in feel but more like granite in
nature." She particularly admires the
stone's rusty red and gold-buff colors-
"very rich, elegant, and rustic at the same
time," she says. The porphyry floor
extends outdoors to portales and the front
courtyard in keeping with the owners'desire for flow from room to room.
Builder Kyle Rutledge dealt with the
"very tricky" challenges of installing
stone pieces that varied as much as aninch in thickness.
Selecting warm interior hues, the
Collisters veered away from yet another
mainstay of Territorial style: white walls.
"We've been married 40 years and I'd
never had anything but a white wall,"Mamie comments. The interior walls of
the Collisters' new home boast mostly
yellow or peach tones accented in white
trim and crown molding. Hoech notes
that the gold tones "complement the
golden tones in the beams, the struc-
tural woodwork, and the antiques,too."
The Collister home has public areasand private ones. Some spaces welcomeboth family and visitors.The front dooropens to a collection of paintingsagainst simple plastered walls, exquis-itely lighted. Continue straight into aformal dining room and living room,reminiscent of the traditional sala with
its cast stone and concrete fireplace. Orturn through hand-painted glass doorsinto the intimate family room andkitchen where the warm-toned, dis-
tressed knotty alder cabinetry by ErnestThompson melds effortlessly withhigh-tech, stainless steel appliances.That same cabinetry takes on a darkfinish in the master suite bathroom in
striking contrast to the honed Carraramarble vanity tops. "This is somethingyou might see in a tum-of-the-centuryhouse in New Mexico," says Doug.
Both Mamie and Doug are seriouscooks and enjoy entertaining. "Four orfive people can be in the kitchen cook-ing with us and there's room for every-one," says Doug. Guests can easily spilloutside to generous-sizedportales.Withan eye toward water management, rainrunoff first waters a tiny grassy plot (aconcession to toddler grandchildren),then spills down cobblestones to nur-ture a wildflower garden.
Interior designer Hoech admires theCollister home because "you don't dis-cover everything at the front door. Thishouse has mystery, intimacy, and ahuman scale," she notes. Approachingthe house through the courtyard, thefront door is not directly in front ofyou, but slightly off to the side. Theslow approach helps to maintain priva-cy and control on the part of the home-owner, says Hoech. Best of all, "It feelslike a real home." III
Jane Mahoney is an Albuquerque ftee-
lance writer and ftequent features con-
tributor to the Albuquerque Journal and
New Mexico Journey.
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