Inside Su Casa

You hold in your hands a heavily remodeled Su Casa. As you'll notice thumbing through the pages, the changes are not merely cosmetic, but structural. after several years of publication and recent management restructuring, it was time to knock out a few walls, add some windows, and reshuffle the floor plan— metaphorically speaking, of course.

First, foremost, and forever, Su Casa is about beautiful Southwestern homes. No change there. But to present them in their best light, the art/production team of Mary Sweitzer and Bonnie Bishop have redesigned Su Casa to give us more-easy-to-find photo spreads in the middle of the magazine.

On either side of this now-deeper "editorial well," you'll find new departments, starting with the Letters section. Our Market Makers column by Emily Van Cleve combines a market-scanning feature (who makes what, where?) with a "now for something completely different" sensibility. We're always tracking new, unusual, or particularly well-crafted products, services, art, or you-name-it that enhances the home. Have any ideas? We'd like to hear about them.

Su Casa still covers food in each issue, but our new column, Su Cuisine, sits down at the table with great at-home cooks. Building Tradition taps a deep well of historic inspiration: the oldest continuous building heritage in the United States, right here in New Mexico. Having evolved since time out of mind through Anasazi, Pueblo Indian, and Spanish colonial architecture, this heritage still serves as a touchstone of enduring beauty for modern Southwestern architects, designers, and builders. Elmo Baca contemplates a masterpiece of renovation in Corrales, the Casa San Ysidro. Taos designer Vishu Magee approaches homes from a different angle in Style with Substance, looking at how people, architecture, landscaping, and the natural environment interact.

Throughout Su Casa, you'll find other writing voices and photographic visions. We're expanding our stable of contributors in both areas. Writer Christine Mather and photographer Erika Blumenfeld play with the light and white surfaces of a charming historic remodel in downtown Santa Fe renovated by builders Steve and Caroline Thompson. Elsewhere, Laura Sanchez explores not-so-big-houses with builder Scott Bealhen. Look at Jack Kotz's photographs of Bealhen's Placitas home and you'll see how this builder conjures spaciousness from modest, flowing floorplans.

Sharon Niederman shares how-to advice for those interested in creating their own babbling brook or koi fish pond. And finally, veteran architecture writer V. B. Price has penned a lovely meditation on Albuquerque's paradise, the North Valley. As photographer Jack Parsons' pictures illustrate, there's no place like home—anywhere—if it's in the North Valley.

If you think of Su Casa as a house, we've finished construction, but its quarterly publication schedule means we redecorate every three months. So we're constantly seeking homes to feature, building trends to write about, home products, creative builders, unique neighborhoods, unacknowledged chefs, historically significant properties, and the like. Send us your ideas. If you're a professional writer or photographer with experience in architecture and design, our e-mail box is always open to queries.

cpoling@sucasamagazine.com

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Copyright 2001
Hacienda Press