Oh, she’s all surface,” some gossip will say, and the implication is not flattering. Or an unwary investor will moan, “That deal looked so great on the surface. Wish we’d dug a little deeper.” But if “surface” suggests less-than-honest human interactions, surface in architecture carries the opposite meaning.

There’s no such thing as a durable, high quality surface unless the structure supporting it is rock solid. And the simpler and cleaner a design, the finer its surface must be, since there’s no explosion of trim to hide the flaws. Smooth, clean lines were what Gen and Julius Danto had in mind when they moved to Albuquerque after spending 23 years in Vancouver, British Columbia, and more time in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Dantos got their clean-lined, form-fitting, easy upkeep house from a well-integrated team. The Dantos first met and consulted with interior designer George Taack, who oversaw the subtle surfaces and custom fittings of their new home.
Taack recommended architect Jim Rogers, who designed the house with echoes of Pacific Rim architecture and 1950s modernism, two modes that demand sophistication of proportion and finish.
The Dantos had worked with architects before. They were living in an architect-designed slump block house in Arizona. They wanted masonry, a hybrid between Pueblo and more modern style, “softened a little bit but not the hand-made adobe look,” Rogers recalls. They showed him pictures of their previous homes, which he used to determine what they wanted in spatial organization and massing, emphasizing the massiveness of walls broken by deep, punched openings, which ultimately was accomplished by constructing the house with concrete-filled foam forms.

 

 

 

 

Rogers, in turn, knew contractor Rob Hughes as someone who would produce work of the necessary high quality. Hughes, brought in early to help with logistics, adapted techniques and materials to create the strong structure and subtle aesthetic of the house. Then, after all that outpouring of collective expertise, the surfaces produced with such skill and care recede into backdrops for the objects within, the Dantos’ collection of Inuit art.

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