When Jan and Bruce Matthias decided to retire and move West from their home in historic Williamsburg, Virginia, they knew they wanted to live on water. So how did they end up in a neo-Pueblo-style house built by Bob Poling (no relation to this writer) on a desert ridgetop in New Mexico?

“It was the views that did it,” Jan admits.
First, rewind a bit. The Matthiases spent a year searching for property, initially scouring the California coast from two hours north of San Francisco down to San Diego. Lovely places in sight of the ocean, but they were either too remote or too financially dear.

Then they scouted the charm-spots in Arizona, chiefly Prescott and Sedona, but nothing clicked there, either (“too many t-shirt stores”). They finally yielded to the urging of a friend in Placitas to come check out New Mexico. Unimpressed with Santa Fe (“too many dirt roads”), they arrived here on opening day of the Homes of Enchantment Parade in October 2002. At a hilltop house in Placitas with panoramic views in 360 degrees, taking in the Sandia Mountains, the Middle Rio Grande Valley, far Mount Taylor to the west, the Jemez Mountains to the north, and the regal Sangre de Cristos to the northeast, they had their epiphany. Wowed, they decided then and there to settle in Placitas.

“It met the criteria,” says Bruce, an engineer and former executive with General Electric. “We got off the water,” he jokes, but the Placitas area offered convenience to shopping and other amenities, plus a quick 35-minute drive to the airport, which was important to the couple, who like to visit their daughter and her family in New York City.

After they found a lot—one facing Sandia Mountain Wilderness and a series of dramatically serrated foothills—all they needed was someone to make them a home.

 

 

 

 

 

Jan recalls: “Our real estate agent said, and I remember the quote, ‘I’ll put you in touch with a totally responsible builder.’ And that’s exactly what Bob Poling has been.”

Poling is something of an institution around Placitas. (See accompanying story.) In the last 23 years, he’s built about 90 houses among the hills, in the canyons, and along the acequias of the traditional village of Placitas, a dozen or more miles north and east of Albuquerque. He’s known for building tasteful, stylish Pueblo-style homes that look like they belong here. From the stucco color to the arrangement of massing to the proportioning of portals, a Poling house tends to look simultaneously modern and local.

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