The architectural character of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is not accidental. When the Spanish arrived in the 1530s, they encountered Pueblo Indian structures built from adobe — sun-dried mud bricks stacked into organic, evolving forms that responded to the landscape and the climate. That building tradition became the foundation of Santa Fe’s visual identity, and it has been actively protected for nearly 100 years.
A Century of Preservation
In 1926, architect John Gaw Meem and writer Oliver La Farge co-founded the Old Santa Fe Association after several historically significant buildings were demolished. The organization recently celebrated its centennial. It was created specifically to prevent that kind of loss from recurring. Chris Webster, Senior Real Estate Advisor and Broker with Sotheby’s International Realty in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and CEO and publisher of Leading Estates of the World, explains that the association’s founding principle still holds: how a building presents to the street matters, even when the interior can be modified freely.
“You can do what you want on the inside,” Webster says, “but how you treat the outside — how it’s visible from the street — is where the greatest levels of concern.”
That standard has shaped development in Santa Fe’s historic districts for decades. The pressure now arriving from outside those districts is of a different kind, and Webster suggests the city’s ability to manage it is being tested in ways it has not faced before.
Los Alamos Growth Strains Housing
The immediate driver of the current tension is employment growth at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The lab is hiring aggressively, and workers need housing. Developers are responding by building in Santa Fe, a city within driving distance of the lab.
Webster describes three- and four-story apartment buildings going up that look “very boxish and squarish without the soft rounded nature of what the adobe architecture historically is all about.”
The conflict is not about growth versus no growth. “Those who care about Santa Fe don’t oppose change and further development,” Webster says. “They want it to be done with an aesthetically pleasing completion as opposed to something garish and out of context.” This is not resistance to density but a community insisting that density be delivered in a form consistent with the city’s identity.
Outside the historic district, developers have considerably more latitude. That latitude, combined with economic incentives to build efficiently and at scale, produces buildings that meet code but not community expectations. The gap between what is legally permissible and what residents consider acceptable is widening. No mechanism currently exists that is robust enough to close it.
When a Garage Beat a Bank
Santa Fe’s history offers a clear precedent for how seriously residents take these standards. In the 1980s, Dallas-based developer Trammell Crow proposed a large commercial building one block from the plaza, with First Interstate Bank as the anchor tenant. The project drew sustained opposition. Citizens objected to the building’s boxy form and pushed for modifications. The developer made adjustments, but when construction was complete, residents felt the changes had not gone far enough.
A group of residents began spray-painting the word “UGLY” on the northeast corner of the building. Construction workers sandblasted the graffiti off each morning, and the cycle repeated approximately 50 times. At the same time, Sam Ballen, owner of the La Fonda Hotel on the plaza, was building a parking garage on an adjacent surface lot. He incorporated buttresses, corbels, and vigas — traditional Santa Fe architectural elements — into the structure. The Old Santa Fe Association gave the parking garage its annual award for best new construction that year.
The local newspaper’s editorial captured the residents’ position: “It’s an interesting statement on our time when people think a bank building is ugly and a parking garage is beautiful.” The episode demonstrates that Santa Fe’s architectural standards are enforced not just through official channels but through sustained pressure — and that residents have historically been willing to apply that pressure at considerable inconvenience to themselves.
Preservation Protects Luxury Demand
The stakes of this conflict extend well beyond aesthetics. Santa Fe’s appeal to affluent buyers is tied to the city’s cultural character, a quality that market data suggests has tangible value. According to Christopher Webster Reports, sales above $2.5 million rose 65% in 2025. Separately, the Wall Street Journal’s Q1 2026 luxury market rankings placed Santa Fe first among the country’s 60 most active luxury markets, with prices up 11.3% year over year.
“Richness is in the heart,” Webster says. “It doesn’t mean that you have to have the biggest house. I like organic pieces made from natural wood, stone, tile, and fabric. And that’s what these houses are. They’re made from the earth.”
That philosophy, embedded in the architecture itself, differentiates Santa Fe from generic resort markets across the Mountain West. Buyers driving the city’s luxury market choose Santa Fe precisely because it does not look or feel like any other place. Development that erodes that quality risks undermining the very demand it seeks to serve.
Whether Santa Fe’s preservation ethic can extend beyond the historic district into the areas now facing development pressure may determine whether the market’s current trajectory continues — or whether the qualities that made the city distinctive become casualties of the growth they helped attract.
About the Expert: Chris Webster is a senior real estate advisor and broker with Sotheby’s International Realty in Santa Fe and is also the CEO and publisher of Leading Estates of the World, a global network connecting buyers, sellers, and real estate professionals in the ultra-luxury market. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Webster has spent five decades working at the intersection of high-end real estate, wealth, and design.
This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. The views and opinions expressed herein reflect those of the individuals quoted and do not represent an endorsement of any company, product, or service mentioned. Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult qualified professionals before making any investment decisions.
