If you follow me on Instagram -you know I dropped news on quite a BIG secret I have been keeping! And if you have no clue what I am talking about…well, we did it !

We decided to purchase property in Santa Fe as a summer and holiday home for us for now. So say hola to our new little cozy high desert casa designed by Ricardo Legorreta! Legorreta was known for his cubic structures with stucco walls, usually painted in striking combinations of rich, earthy reds, sun-baked coppers and oranges, bright yellows, purples, and pinks.

His professional work began in 1948 in the office of the architect José Villagrán, where he collaborated as a draftsman to eventually become Project Manager and in 1955 as Partner. From 1961 to 1963 he dedicated himself to free professional activity and in 1964 he founded Legorreta Arquitectos together with Noé Castro and Carlos Vargas Senior.

Ricardo Legorreta excelled at interpreting the architectural style of buildings of Mexican origin: vibrant colors, geometric shapes, fountains, light-filled spaces and intimate patios with hallmarks of his style. He had a career spanning over fifty years and designed over 100 projects ranging from museums and hotels to office buildings and factories, university campuses, urban spaces, as well as private residences in Mexico and abroad. His work includes influences from the colonial period of Mexico and the Islamic world -the patios-. It was also influenced by the monumental architecture of Louis Kahn. One of his first buildings - the Hotel Camino Real in Mexico City (1968) - was one of his favorites because he said it helped him discover his Mexican roots. He had been very ill and during his recovery he created a building that is now one of his most famous works.

Legorreta continued his work with the design of the Montalbán House in Los Angeles (1985), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey (1991), the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua (1993), Pershing Square in Los Angeles (1993), the Centras Library of San Antonio Texas (1995), the Technological Museum of Innovation in San José California (1998), the Center for Visual Arts of Santa Fe University, New Mexico (1999), the Juárez Complex in Mexico City (2003-2005 ), the Carnegie Mellon University of Business and Computer Science in Qatar (2011), and many other public and private urban buildings and spaces.

Legorreta was an artist and designer in tune with the environment and never forgot to design buildings for the people who use them.

In 1999 he received the Gold Medal from the International Union of Architects (UIA) and in 2000, he became the first Latin American to receive the prodigious Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), for being an architect whose work it has had a lasting influence on the history and practice of architecture. He is the only Mexican who has received the prestigious Praemium Imperiale awarded by the Japan Art Association (2011).

Legorreta’s ability to assemble wall planes, light, scale, geometry, emotion and color in a definite manner has come to be referred to as Legorreta Style. With powerful walls, Legorreta uses their planes to reflect the light of mountainous terrain in high altitudes. By understanding the changing quality of light, he allows his designs to let light give life and character to architectural spaces. Through his use of scale, Legorreta can develop spaciousness from moderate space. Geometric shapes are ever present in his designs in the form of cubes, cylinders, or triangular prisms. Brilliant colors are often the most notable element in Legorreta’s architecture. For him, color is a part of the world around us, a symbol of our emotions and a way to enhance one’s experience with architecture. Legorreta never falters in his philosophy that the most important element in architecture is the people who live within it.

Our new place in The Zocalo provided Legorreta with a new frontier: to create an inspired community at an accessible price point. The majority of Legorreta’s work has focused on public buildings and luxury homes throughout the world; a more moderately priced condominium project such as Zocalo was a new area for him. In conceiving this community, Legorreta envisioned a community bonded by simplicity of style, vibrancy through color, light and inspired architectural design. The result is a reflection of his vision. Modern elements combine with traditional Pueblo Indian architecture to create a dramatic living space. Brilliant colors are used on the exteriors while the interiors are filled with warm light, geometric shapes, and soaring spaces. Zocalo is an inspired community marked by great architecture that has a symbiotic relationship with the terrain and culture that surrounds it.

Located in the foothills of the beautiful Sangre de Cristo Mountains on Santa Fe’s prestigious north side, Zocalo offers a convenient, easy lifestyle with close proximity to the best of Santa Fe. Zocalo is just minutes to downtown Santa Fe’s historic plaza, world-famous art galleries, renowned culinary cuisine, shopping and museums. The Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe Ski Basin and recreation complexes are minutes away. National forest and wilderness areas offer numerous walking, hiking, and biking trails all within a short drive from Zocalo. Kayaking, golfing and fishing are nearby, and Zocalo is just a 45-minute drive from the famous Taos Ski Valley.

Since we’re getting ready to dive into renovations it felt like a good time to drop in with some pics of the casa as well as answer a few FAQ’s that I’ve gotten from you guys this weekend!

How did you find Your New Casa?

The story of this Santa Fe home starts with the pandemic really and that last few years of being locked down at home and being very careful out there even as restrictions were restricted. With so many distractions eliminated from our day-to-day, we found ourselves taking a fresh look at the choices we were making with our lives. Though Lin and I had talked for years about having a vacation home it was always in the context of someday far off in the future.

But with the pandemic came a new level of flexibility!

Suddenly, we questioned why we weren’t actually doing this thing we’d been talking about for years…of course Barcelona always being at the forefront of that conversation! (People still think I am insane for not going over the pond but it just does not feel right for me right now….more on that another time)

After two years of no true vacation, we packed up and left to New Mexico for the summer. Santa Fe has always been a place we love and we had also never been there longer than a week or so! We wanted to live there and really see if we loved it as much as we thought we did and also see what that looked like. What would be important to us living there? Being right downtown? Being more secluded with a killer view? And so on.

So as we got further into out trip..the next thing we knew, we were online looking at real estate! That was such an insane process in such a hot market. As soon as we would find something we wanted to see, it would have a pending sale hours later. We ended up finding land we loved which felt too good to be true because it was just blocks from The Plaza with amazing mountain and desert views providing the very BEST of both worlds. We contacted that realtor and a builder and the list goes on. But after weeks we decided that it just was not going to work. Building in Santa Fe can be super challenging because of their soil and then top that with a waitlist on builders and contractors and the rising cost of supplies…well what a headache. The covenants too are a process as everything has to be approved. Lin desperately tried so hard to get this land to work but we both had to come to terms with it and let it go. It was SOOOO tough though. We had both gotten so attached.

That realtor grew uninterested in us too and we realized he was not going to be much help to us if we were not looking at dropping a million dollars on something. (and trust me-everything is a million dollars in Santa Fe in terms of housing..HA) The market is cray!!!!

We received an email from a realtor that we signed up to get alerts with and had a wonderful property brought to our attention that was a condo close to The Plaza. The photos looked great and the price was fair. So we contacted him and long story short-that condo was not for us but the realtor was for us. Lin’s chiropractor kept telling us about Zocalo so we drove by and finally understood. We contacted our realtor and he sent us one listing for the only unit that was for sale there. We wanted to see it in person and he arranged it for the very next morning however our dreams would shatter again when he called that night to say the condo had sold. So we were not going to see it but he would keep his eyes open for anything else that popped up in the future. It was nauseating!

We were so ready to just pull the plug and revisit this conversation next summer because nothing was working out. We were leaving to come back to Tulsa anyhow in just a few days and to be honest-we were both just losing interest.

That morning we were abruptly woken up to several calls and it was our realtor telling us that there must have been a mistake on the MLS and it was not sold and asked if we could make the 10 am showing. It was 9:27 and we made it work! HA. I had no makeup on…hair was a mess but we made it!!

We loved the property even more after the in person tour and made an offer which would result in days and days of going back and forth over and over again to the point where you truly just wanted to walk away. They seller was unreasonable and we just could not even get close to meeting somewhere in the middle. But the day before we left he accepted our final offer and in between packing and everything else we had going on we were able to grab measurements in The SF condo. Soooo stressful!

We returned home and inspections did not go great resulting in more and more negotiations and it was truly was such a crazy stressful month of trying to make it work, but I’ll spare you the details. Point is, we miraculously got the place !!!!

Why Santa Fe? Do you have family there?

Nope—Lin’s from Pawhuska Oklahoma and I’m from El Paso Texas, but we’ve both been in Tulsa for quite some time! Lin actually has only lived in Oklahoma believe it or not so this is all really weird and exciting for him, Awe-my Okie!!

However, even before we knew each other, both Lin and I have felt a pull towards the desert..mainly just a more moderate climate! Tulsa summers have become unbearable. I love San Francisco and he loves Barcelona so Santa Fe is us meeting in the middle. Our version of meeting in the middle!!! Our summer in Santa Fe exploring the area really provided us with an instant connection this year..an instant ease, and just “at home” feeling immediately. The nature-focused way of life appeals to us greatly. We shopped at the farmers market and would go hiking with the pups, or just relax and we watched the stars at night. The cell signal is not perfect—just the kind of change from “normal life” that we’ve been craving amidst the crazy busy pace of our Tulsa lives.

What drew you to this property?

We of course love the Legorreta Style and feel really drawn to the outdoor design! It has a modern look and modern is tough to find in Santa Fe. We ultimately felt like a condo would be best for us too since we are keeping our Tulsa property and will travel back some. WE also love the blank canvas (our unit is one of the first and is the oldest) so we can really do some renovations easily that make sense for the modern style we love. We tried to love vigas and kiva fireplaces and cozy casita vibes but at the end of the day-it’s simply something we can appreciate but it’s just not us. We did really try though especially in the home we rented on Kearny. The flat ceilings and lack of windows depressed us actually. The Southwestern interiors did not inspire us daily living in them.

So with this home it’s really all about the property! We’re on a quiet cul de sac and have a corner unit with lots of privacy and literally our backyard is the desert. The mountain views are lovely and we have a yard and two balconies -one off the the master bedroom and other is off the guest bedroom. I plan to really go nuts with all those creating the most gorgeous outdoor spaces as we plan to spend our time outdoors!

One major “pro” for the house is its natural light – every photo I take has its own beauty despite the ugly countertops and dark tile floors. When you’re there, there’s that feeling of being immersed in nature even when you’re indoors, and that’s certainly something that was a huge decision factor!

What will the renovation include?

Keeping things simple but we are renovating the kitchen and three bathrooms! I do not want to say too much yet though as we are still figuring things out. But those are the areas that need the most work. We also need to do some work with the yard and the balconies.

I’ll definitely be sharing all our design inspiration, including the “design style” we are going with and what materials we’re planning to use throughout the house and of course the interiors!! So make sure to subscribe to the newsletter so you never miss a thing!!!

Thank you so much for all the kind words!!! We are truly so excited!!!!!!

See you next summer Santa Fe! You stole our hearts !!!! 🌵 🏜 ✨

( And that bathtub view .. I can’t wait)