History
The President's House at the University of New Mexico was built in 1930 on a prominent corner at Roma Avenue and Yale Boulevard, on the edge of the campus that the university had been steadily shaping into a Pueblo Revival enclave. The residence was commissioned to provide an official home for the university's chief executive and was designed in the manner that president James F. Zimmerman and architect John Gaw Meem had together promoted across the campus through the late 1920s and 1930s.
The house is a Pueblo Revival composition in stuccoed adobe and frame, with thick battered walls, projecting wooden vigas, recessed window openings with deep adobe reveals, and a stepped-back massing meant to evoke the layered roofscapes of the northern Pueblos. A low parapet, carved corbels at the portal, and earth-toned stucco place the building firmly within the regional idiom that Meem and his contemporaries codified during the period. The interior follows the Pueblo Revival convention of plastered walls, exposed beams, and corner fireplaces drawn from northern New Mexican domestic precedent.
The residence was part of a deliberate institutional program to establish Pueblo Revival as the unifying style of the University of New Mexico campus, a policy initiated under president David Spence Hill and aggressively expanded by Zimmerman. The President's House served as the residence of successive university presidents and as a site for official receptions and university functions for decades after its construction. Its prominence along the campus's historic axis made it one of the most visible expressions of the regional style outside Santa Fe.
The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 as part of the broader recognition of Pueblo Revival architecture at the university. The building continues in residential or institutional use associated with the university and remains intact in form and finish. Within the broader adobe tradition of New Mexico, the President's House stands as an academic-era refinement of the Pueblo Revival style, translating an indigenous building vocabulary into a formal civic residence at a moment when the style was being adopted as the architectural identity of New Mexico itself.
Common questions
What is President's House?
President's House is a historic Spanish Pueblo Revival building on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico, built in 1930. Now known as University House, it was designed by architect Miles Brittelle and serves as a residence associated with the university leadership.
When was President's House built?
President's House was built in 1930 on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque. It was listed on both the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Where is President's House located?
President's House is located at the northeast corner of Roma Avenue and Yale Boulevard on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Is President's House open to the public?
President's House is recorded as a private residence in this entry, serving the university as a residence rather than a regularly tourable museum. It is not generally open for public tours.
What architectural style is President's House?
President's House was designed in the Spanish Pueblo Revival style by architect Miles Brittelle. The style evokes traditional adobe pueblo construction with stuccoed walls, flat roofs, and projecting vigas, popularized in New Mexico in the early twentieth century.
Who designed President's House?
President's House was designed by architect Miles Brittelle, who employed the Spanish Pueblo Revival idiom popular in New Mexico in the early twentieth century. The building was completed in 1930 on the University of New Mexico campus.
