Pueblo Revival Architecture

The Pueblo Revival style draws upon local historical precedents for inspiration. Pueblo Revival Buildings contain a mixture of elements from both Native American pueblos and flat-roofed Spanish Colonial buildings. Native Americans led a stable agricultural lifestyle in the Southwest. As early as the ninth century, they began building pueblos, multistoried structures made of sun-dried clay. The flat roofs were framed with straight beams, called vigas, that projected a foot or so out from the walls. Rainwater spouts, called canales, also projected from the buildings. Originally there were no doors at the lower level, and people climbed wooden ladders to access the upper level.

A prototype for the Pueblo Revival style was the Governor’s Palace in Santa Fe, New Mexico, built in 1609. The building blended local Native American construction techniques with Spanish planning and details. The one-story adobe structure had a covered porch, called a portales, that extended almost the entire length of the building. The porch roof was a wood framework supported by wood posts with bracket capitals. The building did not contain any arches, domes, or vaults like other Spanish Colonial designs.

The earliest examples of Pueblo Revival were built in California around the turn of the century. However, the style became most popular in Arizona and New Mexico, where the original prototypes survive. The style proliferated in the 1920s and 1930s in the Southwestern states, particularly in cities such as Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Characteristic Features:

• Flat roof surrounded by a parapeted wall.  

• Walls and roof parapets feature rounded corners and edges.

• Projecting rough-hewn wooden roof beams (vigas) extending through the walls. Vigas, wood window lintels, and porch supports carry out a hand-built theme.

• Stucco wall surface, usually earth-colored with an irregular texture.

• Stepped-back roofline of the original pueblos is often used. 

The Pueblo Revival was easily adaptable to WPA buildings because of its labor-intensive building methods and use of local materials.