Probably you’re just like me: every time my family has friends over for dinner, we all end up in the kitchen. More than just a work room at the heart of the house, it doubles as social center, triples as entertainment center, quads as homework center. . . . No wonder it’s the most-remodeled room in the American house. We spend so many of our waking hours there, it ought to be the centerpiece.

For this issue of Su Casa, we found five kitchens that really are design centerpieces in their own right. In size, style, and approach to the art of cooking, this photogenic five spans a wide range, yet all fit comfortably under the Southwestern style umbrella. Turn to “Cooking class,” page 84, to begin your taste test.

Elsewhere, two nontraditional homes test the depth of modern architecture in New Mexico. The Fitzgibbon residence in Los Alamos (“Hope triumphs,” page 102) just might be the last home designed by the late, great Albuquerque architect George Pearl. Built on the site of the homeowners’ burned-out house, which they lost in the Cerro Grande conflagration, the new home stands as a tall testament to the best kind of mid-20th-century optimism, a triumph of hope over the despair of losing everything.

Meanwhile down in Santa Fe, architect D Joseph Andrade has conjured a compact residential compound on a busy mixed-use thoroughfare. With nary a viga, kiva fireplace, or howling coyote in sight, the Andrade home won a merit award in the 2006 Su Casa/AIA Albuquerque chapter residential design competition. (See “Continuing surprise,” page 112.)

Our Green Home column takes you to Taos, where the Parker residence manages to look utterly New Mexican yet exotic. Its worldly design and green credentials stem from designer Joaquin Karcher’s grounding in earthen building and the Parkers’ inspired design sensibility.

If all that isn’t enough, our Hasta la Vista column features a green home built by owners Michael Lancaster and Barbara Harnack near Cerrillos, New Mexico. In a sense, their place is one large conceptual art piece with views and a big dose of sustainable design, which proves you can have it all.