INFLUENCES ON ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
LANDSCAPE AND ECOLOGICAL
Southwestern ecosystems embrace a range of
landscapes from tundra to grasslands. Drought
and fire are dominant influences. Only 4 percent
of the land in the Southwest is riparian. These
ribbons of green are highly valued and sometimes
contested by competing interests.
The province contains six landscape character
types. From California to Texas, these share the
characteristics of vast skies, long vistas, and a
strong horizontal line. The land forms are
plateaus, mountains, valleys, plains, and canyons.
Vegetation creates washes of color varying from
olive-drab scrublands to gray-green woodlands.
Geology adds grays and the deep reds of
dramatic sandstone formations. Landscape
character types include:
The Mexican Highlands, a vast area of Arizona
and New Mexico, roughly is divided into one-third
mountains and two-thirds plains and grasslands.
Drained by V-shaped ravines, the mountains of
the Mexican Highlands feature bold escarpments
and outcrops. Dry washes called arroyos drain
the plains. Vegetation varies from coniferous
forests at higher elevation, to woodland, to
desert shrub.
The Sonoran Desert dominates southwest
Arizona. Like the Mexican Highlands, the area
combines mountains with canyons and plains
drained by arroyos. The Colorado River is the
principal waterway. Mountains are relatively low
and barren with many exposed rocks. The plains
are relatively barren. Areas with no ground cover
plantings are justly called “desert pavement.”
But places where Saguaro cactus grows host
a rich complement of palo verde, mesquite, and
prickly pear.
The Tonto makes a transition between the desert
floor and the Colorado Plateau. This is a landscape
of coniferous forests, deciduous woodlands, desert
shrub, chaparral grasslands, palo verde, and cholla
cactus. Geology is epitomized by the dramatic
red-rock formations of Sedona, Arizona. The
principal rivers are the Verde and Salt rivers with
dry washes draining the foothills.
In California, the Southwest Mountain and Valley
is crossed by earthquake faults and dominated
by chaparral grasses that can grow 10 feet
tall. The province stretches from San Luis Obispo
County to the north to the Mexican border
and from the undulating coastal plains to
three rugged mountain ranges: the Transverse,
the Peninsular, and the Southern Coastal.
National forests comprise about
one-third of these lands.
This landscape generally is semiarid with forested
stands limited to higher elevations. It is
dissected by canyons and riparian areas.
The Desert and Desert Mountain includes
southeastern California from the Mexican border
and Nevada to the eastern base of the Sierra
Nevada, Peninsular, and Transverse mountain
ranges. Parts of the Colorado and Mohave
deserts fall within this province. Elevations range
from below sea level in Death Valley to 14,242 feet
on White Mountain Peak. This landscape character
type is typified by long views across sagebrush
and shadscale or creosote bush. Alkali flats and
bare peaks may be visible in the distance. Open
stands of Joshua trees are common. Pinyonjuniper
woodlands cover the foothills and lower
mountain slopes. Bristlecone pines grow at
elevations above 10,000 feet.
Figure of Desert and Desert Mountain
Figure of Sonoran Desert
Figure of Tonto
The Sierra Foothills and Low Coastal Mountains
include low hills at the base of the Sierra Nevada
and Cascade ranges as well as a major portion of
the Coastal Range. The Sierra foothills and
eastern Coastal Mountains are typified by oak
woodlands, rounded hills, and chaparral-covered
slopes. Trees range from 15 to 70 feet tall.
Several major rivers and canyons bisect the
province. The green hills of winter turn gold with
fields of poppy and lupine in summer. The western
Coastal Range rises to 5,000 feet with dense
forests of pine, fir, and oak. Madrone cover northand
east-facing slopes, and chaparral grasses
cover west- and south-facing slopes.
Figure of Sierra Foothills/Low Coastal Mountains
CULTURAL
Native American: Early Native Americans in
Arizona, New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado
built the province’s first permanent structures—
modified caves and rock shelters. Eventually the
Anasazi groups built surface dwellings such as
pit houses. Between 700 and 900 A.D., they
developed above-ground masonry dwellings that
eventually were joined to form small villages.
Anasazi architecture reached its peak between
1150 and 1350 in the great multistoried pueblos
such as those in the Four Corners area. Perhaps
due to droughts, the Anasazi dispersed. Their
descendants built plaza-centered pueblos of
stone or puddled adobe. The Taos, Acoma, Zuni,
and Hopi pueblos date to this period.
Spanish Colonial: The first permanent Spanish
colonists occupied an abandoned pueblo near the
Rio Grande River and modified it with Spanishtype
doors and windows. In 1610, Governor Don
Pedro de Peralta established Santa Fe under a
town plan that followed a mandate called the Law
of the Indies. The code dictated that all Spanish
colonial towns contain a central plaza with public,
commercial, and institutional buildings (such as
churches) facing the plaza. Residences were built
along a grid pattern of streets extending from
the plaza.
The Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680 forced the
Spanish to flee to the El Paso valley. When the
Spanish returned, they fortified buildings and
churches against further Indian attack. For
example, they built enclosed complexes with
smooth windowless exterior walls. Their buildings
included such defensive features as parapets,
troneras (gun ports), and torreones (lookout
towers).
Mission Style: Spanish Colonial missions and
churches were a continuing influence on later
Southwest design. Unlike the adobe structures
of the pueblos, these missions were built of
stone. Their construction derived almost entirely
from European designs.
SOUTHWEST
Territorial Style: After the Gold Rush of 1849,
Americans surged into California on overland
routes like the Santa Fe Trail. The new settlers
adopted methods that served the Spanish well in
the arid Southwest, but they added decorative
elements from “back East.” Milled woodwork
added to flat-roofed adobe houses spawned the
Territorial style, so named because Arizona and
New Mexico, where this trend predominated,
remained territories into the 20th century.
CCC-Rustic: During the 1930’s, the WPA, CCC,
and other Federal relief programs built civic
buildings and public works throughout the
country. In the Southwest, WPA-era buildings
adopted Spanish Colonial, Pueblo, and Territorial
Revival styles. They used domes, curvilinear
parapets, vigas, canales, and stucco. The “rustic”
idiom was evident in parks, forests, and outdoor
recreational areas.
Materials: Adobe was not the only indigenous
building material. Clay beds along the lower Rio
Grande provided raw material for local brickmaking
operations from the 1860’s to the present.
Generations of Mexican and Mexican-American
artisans have built distinctive brick dwellings,
churches, and commercial buildings on both sides
of the Rio Grande from Laredo to Brownsville.