'Churches for the Southwest' reveals captivating architecture of New Mexico
There is nothing like a New Mexico sky, with its accompanying light and landscape. The architecture of America's Southwest is spellbinding. So too is Stanford Lehmberg's new book, Churches for the Southwest.
Tracing American architect John Gaw Meem, one of the principals of the Santa Fe style, the author follows Meem's personal history of relocating to New Mexico to recover from tuberculosis to his pioneering ecclesiastical works.
From the 1920's until the early 1960's, Meem was involved in the design of twenty-two churches, ranging from Roman Catholic mission to those also serving Protestant congregations.
His trademark adobe pueblo style is seen in such famous Santa Fe structures as Cristo Rey, Immanuel Lutheran, and First Presbyterian, and the simple yet elegant Taos Presbyterian Church.
With its white cross, the Cristo Rey Catholic Church is the largest Spanish adobe church in the United States. Constructed of more than 200,000 mud and straw adobe bricks, and then hauled into place by its own parishioners, the final work is nothing short of majestic.
With yet another Santa Fe church, First Presbyterian, during the 1930's, Meem became the leading church architect in the state of New Mexico, and "perhaps in the entire Southwest," writes Lehmberg.
One of Meem's truest masterpieces is St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Albuquerque. Built in 1952 in an early English Gothic style, it features lancet windows in the nave, giving it a sense of supreme loftiness.
Adding to the rustic sense of his exterior facades, many of Meem's ceilings were constructed of dark wood.
Meem's works and those whose designs have followed in his style form the ideal forefront against the backdrop of today's vivid New Mexico skies. No drive through Santa Fe or Taos is complete without spotting one of these countless structures.
This book is also chalked full of architectural sketches and vivid photographs. Although somewhat lacking indepth discussions and anecdotes of Meem's actual work and subsequent challenges with not only the construction phase but behind-the-scenes dealings with church leaders, overall Churches for the Southwest is the definitive historical read on the worldrenowned Santa Fe style.
Elisabeth A. Doehring is an award-winning writer. She serves as the book review editor for Splash Magazine and Gulf Breeze News. Her literary reviews appear in publications throughout the southeast and in her
maternal ancestral country of
Ireland. Elizabeth A.
Doehring
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