The Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation is excited to hold its 2010 annual meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  From April 21 through April 24, we will explore regional landscapes and hear from local landscape experts, as well as students and faculty from the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning.

Our primary venue will be the Hotel Albuquerque, which exemplifies the "Albuquerque Style," a modern blend of New Mexico's Pueblo, Spanish, Territorial, and Western cultures. The hotel is adjacent to the museum district and Albuquerque’s Old Town. Founded in 1706 by Spanish settlers, Old Town is a City of Albuquerque Historical Zone and reflects a traditional Spanish town in its layout of a central plaza with a church. More than 200 shops, restaurants, galleries, and private residences, many of which occupy historic buildings, surround the San Felipe de Neri Church. Old Town continues to play a central role in religious, commercial, and cultural activities of the city.

Regional tours feature Los Poblanos, an abandoned segment of Route 66, the La Bajada acequia, and Acoma Pueblo.

La Quinta Cultural Centre

Lavender farm

Los Poblanos is a 25-acre site northwest of downtown Albuquerque. Ambrosio and Juan Cristobal Armijo owned the 500-acre Los Poblanos Ranch through the 19th century, and Albert and Ruth Simms rehabilitated the ranch in the 1930s. The ranch house was recently converted into an Inn and the onsite La Quinta Cultural Center was brought back to its original use as a building for public use and recreation. The property boasts an organic vegetable farm, a lavender farm, John Gaw Meem buildings, a Rose Greely formal Spanish-style garden designed in 1932, and art by woodcut-printer Gustave Baumann, ironsmith Walter Gilbert, photographer Laura Gilpin, painter Peter Hurd, illustrator Paul Valentine Lantz, painter Larry Miller, and tinsmith Robert Woodman.

La Quinta Portal South

Los Poblanos

Meem is widely considered New Mexico's greatest 20th-century architect, and his name is synonymous with the Santa Fe style. Rose Greely, a pioneer female landscape architect, was the first female graduate of Harvard's landscape architecture program and worked primarily in the Washington D.C. area designing formal residential gardens. Los Poblanos is her only known work in the southwest and features vibrant flowerbeds irrigated with river water, Spanish tile fountains, rose cutting gardens, winding pathways, and an allee of mature Cottonwood trees.  Poblano means rustic or rural in Spanish.

Los Poblanos Inn

Irises

La Bajada is a basalt escarpment that is a “scenic and historically important landform” between Albuquerque and Santa Fe that reflects a span of human activities of more than 400 years. Most renowned are the remains of historical-period trail, wagon, and early automobile routes that begin with the Spanish El Camino Real, include the National Trails Highway and New Mexico Route 1, and end with one of the first automobile alignments of Route 66. With 17 switchbacks, the route remains today as an early road engineering feat and must have been quite the automobile adventure. During the summer of 2008, the University of New Mexico and the National Park Service conducted a weeklong course documenting La Bajada as part of the Historic American Landscape Survey. La Bajada means descent or downward slope in Spanish.

Overlooking La Bajada

La Bajada acequia

The La Bajada acequia provides water from the Santa Fe River to the village of La Bajada. Acequias are historic communal irrigation systems that support the culture and livelihood of thousands of families in New Mexico today. Imported by Spanish settlers, acequias are engineered water conveyance systems that divert water from rivers, streams, and mountain runoff to fields. Acequias are often governed by community associations and administered by a majordomo.   

Acoma 'Sky City'

Acoma, also known as "Sky City," is a Pueblo Indian community constructed atop a 367-foot (112-m) sandstone mesa in west-central New Mexico. The Acoma Pueblo, likely established in the 12th century or earlier, was constructed on the mesa for its defensive position. It is regarded as the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States. The Sky City Cultural Center at the mesa’s base includes heritage activities and exhibits. The Acoma Pueblo is a National Trust for Historic Preservation Historic Site and an excellent example of a continuing cultural landscape.          

Acoma 'Sky City'

New Mexico is a unique blend of historic and modern traditions, urban and rural spaces, and artistic and scientific influences. With its scenic byways, sacred peaks, and endless vistas, and where the night sky is considered a heritage resource, it is no wonder they call it the Land of Enchantment. Mark your calendars and save the date—April 21–24, 2010—we look forward to seeing you!

For the 32nd Annual Alliance Meeting, one or more scholarships are available for students in the fields of study related to cultural landscape architecture including landscape architecture, architecture, planning, conservation, cultural geography, history, anthropology, and horticulture.

Students may apply to receive a waiver of the conference registration fee and a payment of US$300 to defer travel expenses to attend the conference.

• a letter addressed to the Alliance Scholarship Committee detailing your interests in attending the 2010 meeting;
• a copy of your curriculum vitae;
• an abstract of your research to be presented at the meeting; and,
• letters of recommendation from three (3) faculty members and/or employers who are familiar with your research.

Successful applicants will be informed by the end of February, 2010.

For Canadian students:  Achim Jankowski, 5534 Granville Road, Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia B0S 1K0, (902) 532-0703, achim.jankowski@ns.sympatico.ca.