Casa Colibrí
Our client for this residence was born and raised in Santa Fe. She traveled frequently and extensively throughout Mexico as a youth.
With our client, a quiet spread of land with close views of the Sangre de Christo mountains was found, not more than a couple miles from the Santa Fe Plaza.
Our client imagined an architecture which would be contemporary, but with historic references: a setting for Mexican Colonial furnishings and artifacts. Steeped as she was in the traditional architecture and crafts of Mexico, surrounded with them in her many travels to Mexican Colonial cities, with their influences from Europe and China, she envisioned a house and furnishings that would reflect in every detail this eclectic mix.
This was to be a home where family and friends would want to come and spend time; a home with a setting for entertaining at every scale, from intimate and every day to the grand scale of fund raisers for some of Santa Fe’s best loved organizations.
We and our client had a great time visiting craftsmen, dealers, and collectors in Mexico who supplied so much for Casa Colibrí’s construction and furnishings.
We visited a tile maker in Puebla, glass blowers in Tlaquepaque, a copper smith, antique dealers, a collector of old doors who works for Antique Warehouse in Santa Fe, artists and antique dealers, wrought iron workers in Guadalajara, weavers, a paper maché artist, and on and on.
We traveled to San Antonio, Texas with our client, to order wrought iron sculpture from a local blacksmith, and architectural stone columns and beams from a San Antonio based company.
The builder, McDowell Construction, worked closely with the craftsmen with whom we contracted, and with the specialty architectural materials and features we imported. Doug brought his own talented group to the project as well, as Santa Fe is blessed with a wealth of craftspeople and artisans who worked with our imports and brought their own creativity and beauty to the work as well.
The house truly does reflect our client’s vision. She rises each morning and sees the mountains all around: sunrise over the Sangre de Christo mountains; and at sunset the vibrant colors which inspired the mountains’ name.
For more information about this property, contact Lila.