25 State Road 230, Valdez

Award-winning architectural design in the most magical Taos County location. The Gold Residence, designed by renowned Santa Fearchitect Suby Bowden, won the highest award for “Design Excellence” in New Mexico in 2009 from The American Institute of Architects.The home has been featured in a cover story in Santa Fe Trend magazine. The home is located on the floor of the Valdez valley, withroughly 345 feet of river frontage right on the Rio Hondo. The valley is a lush oasis in the high desert and its riparian environment isvisited by abundant wildlife and migratory birds making the location one of the rarest of the county’s many ecosystems. The architect’svision for the home was to fuse a contemporary aesthetic with the rural vernacular of Northern New Mexico. The rural pitched roof andtwo-foot thick rammed earth walls are reconceived in a modern manner. The design is envisioned as a geode, with a textured exterior(achieved by sandblasting the rammed earth walls to reveal the organic lifts of earth into the forms used to frame the walls) and a refinedmodern design on the inside. Passive solar and water collection are incorporated to further energy efficiency and rural tradition. Theinterior of the main house is just under 5000 square feet and is dominated by mountain views of El Salto to the east with soaring spacesand extensive glass to bring the outside views in. With construction of the highest quality, the home abounds in luxury finishes but alsoembraces simple materials, su