Using an 18″ module Jay determined the width of each step. He repeated the module so each step is also 18″ apart – in hindsight he would have made it 14″ to match a natural stride. The wood formwork was salvaged from other projects and he used about 1 1/4 cubic yards of concrete. The concrete was floated for an easy, no-fuss finish. Buffalo grass clumps extend the linear movement of each step. The dragon laying on the pipes is a cool touch Katya added to prevent people from tripping on them.
What New Mexico Architects Make for Themselves
Garden Trellis Al Fresco Dinning
On one of her many travels, Katya visited Marfa, Texas, where she encountered the simple and modular trellis designed by Donald Judd. Inspired by the structure Katya designed this out-of-doors dining theater. Jay constructed it for Katya’s birthday from 4×6 pressure treated wood. Two 8″ lag bolts anchor each beam to its column. Cables are strung through eyehooks to allow vines to grow overhead.
The table seats 24 people and has hosted everything from a wedding reception to quiet garden dinners and even morning coffee. Sited between the house and the Moon room guesthouse, the dining trellis creates continuity between the structures like an exhale between breaths.
The strength of its modular design shows in the adjacency to the garden fence where grape and wisteria vines envelope the area with the scent of flowers, the colors of ripening fruit, and the company of friends enjoying the beautiful weather we have here in the desert.
Moon Room
There is something about Northern New Mexico – the air, the quality of light, the nostalgia of ruined objects preserved in the dry desert. Those objects have a power that steals us to their time and place. Entering the Moon Room, a room rebuilt by a Northern New Mexican, transports you to the Taos valley.
Originally, the room was a detached shed. When Katya moved into the property, the roof was gone and it had an abandoned car parked in front of it. She began enclosing the room by building and insulating a new roof. She added windows and painted the bricks white. The roof has draped white fabric that glows with the light from a skylight softening the space. The heavy and glossy worktable is from an old bowling lane rescued from a bowling alley.
This room sometimes serves as a guesthouse, for those who can handle it—the bathroom and running water are in the main house but most of the time it is Katya’s office. Jay recently upgraded the electrical to support her technological needs.
As a teenager, Katya had a similar room in her parent’s home on their garlic farm in Dixon, New Mexico. She says the room is a bit of a Frankenstein since everything is pieced together. I get an entirely different feel—one of collected objects and collected thoughts, a bit of a dollhouse and a bit of tough – just like her.
Salvaged Redwood Siding for a Man Cave
As the son of an antiques dealer, Jay has an eye for spotting good design in the wild. Consider the minimalist siding Jay deployed on his man-cave. These hyper-masculine spaces have become popular in recent years but with most of them, the title of man-cave is ironic. There is no plasma screen and plush carpet here. Instead, there are tools of iron and wood, classic pinup girls that saw young men off to war, and a solid table where work is done. To contain this manly space, Jay took inspiration from the minimalist fencing used by the San Jose Hotel in Austin, Texas. The wood came from a salvage job where the client was replacing a redwood deck with composite lumber. Jay ripped the 2×6 redwood decking into 2x2s and nailed them into 4x4s salvaged from another job. Because the deck was painted, Jay exposed the ripped side to show the natural beauty of the wood and the machine marks from the table saw. Jay chose to leave it unfinished to let it weather naturally. He didn’t frame the siding around the window to avoid breaking the minimal and linear aesthetic and besides it casts a nice shadow pattern inside.