::FEATURE ARTICLES::

Albuquerque's
Outstanding Infill

By Laura Sanchez

Three recent infill projects in Albuquerque’s North Valley demonstrate elegant solutions to challenging building sites. All of them respect traditional New Mexico housing patterns. Each one began with a single person who had an idea.

In 1985, Mark Feldman contemplated a cornfield across the street from his house near Rio Grande Boulevard and Indian School Road. At the time, the 1.29-acre property was zoned for townhouses. Feldman, an experienced solar designer and builder, began planning the solar-heated, Pueblo-style enclave that became Paseo del Prado.

Elsewhere, in 1992, Debbie O’Malley, who still lived in the Sawmill neighborhood where she grew up, heard that the 27-acre parcel of land directly to the east was for sale. If the land east of Rio Grande Boulevard and south of Interstate 40 were developed in line with its industrial zoning, it could blight the neighborhood. But O’Malley also realized that the land sale offered an unprecedented opportunity.

More recently and a few miles back up the valley, former city planner Ken Balizer started looking for a site suitable for building high quality, high density houses. He acquired an unusual one: a long, narrow, three-acre rectangle tucked behind existing houses on Cherokee Road, with barely enough visible frontage for a single house. Balizer named the hidden neighborhood-to-be Secret Gardens.

All three people were aware of infill’s potential advantages—less expensive infrastructure, shorter commutes that create less pollution, more interesting neighborhoods marked by both urban vitality and secluded serenity. The projects they initiated display innovative site design, architectural excellence, and the sense that every turn hides intriguing discoveries.

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Erika Blumenfeld©

Builder and developer Mark Feldman used adobe for common walls between units to deaden sounds. Raymond’s home shows the clean Southwestern design that characterizes Feldman’s project.