Contact:

Jan Dodson Barnhart 277-7175 Chris Wilson 277-3303 Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920

February 22, 2002

EXHIBIT, BOOKSIGNING CELEBRATE JOHN GAW MEEM ARCHITECTURE

The UNM General Library opens the exhibit, "Facing Southwest: The Houses of John Gaw Meem," on Wednesday, Feb. 27. At 5:30 p.m., in conjunction with the opening, UNM visiting associate professor of architecture Chris Wilson will sign copies of his book that bears the same name as the exhibit. Wilson is also co-curator.

Others at the book signing include the book's photographer, Robert Reck and architect George Pearl, who provided the supplemental drawings.

"The name John Gaw Meem is synonymous with Santa Fe style," says Wilson of . He says that Meem has long been recognized for public buildings in Santa Fe and Albuquerque - including Zimmerman Library and Scholes Hall on the UNM campus, but "Facing Southwest" provides the first intensive introduction to Meem's great houses.

Wilson uncovers Meem's odyssey from a bicultural childhood in Brazil to the Virginia Military Institute. He later went to work designing the New York subways, pursued then aborted a career in international banking in Brazil, before ending up in a tuberculosis sanitarium in Santa Fe where he found his life's work.

"Meem brought the Spanish-Pueblo style to maturity, created his own brand of regional classicism, the Territorial Revival; and worked to reconcile modernism and southwestern traditions, notably in his innovative solar adobe houses," says Wilson.

"The exhibit, in addition to complimenting the book, gives the library the opportunity to show off its John Gaw Meem archival collection and photos," says Beth Silbergleit, archivist and co-curator. Probably most recognizable among Meem-designed houses are La Quinta and Los Poblanos, both in Albuquerque's North Valley, says Silbergleit.

The archive, named for long-time UNM architect John Gaw Meem, document the built environment of New Mexico and the Southwest. Materials in the collections also record the works of art historians, architectural firms and other related organizations. The archives were established in 1975 with the donation of the works of Meem who was instrumental in developing the University of New Mexico campus.

Widely known for promoting the Spanish Pueblo-Revival style, Meem began practicing architecture in New Mexico in 1924. His interest in the concept of regional architecture, and his role in the historic preservation of mission churches, is reflected in the buildings he conceived.

Wilson, the J.B. Jackson professor of cultural landscape studies in the School of Architecture and Planning at UNM, also authored the cultural history, "The Myth of Santa Fe: Creating a Modern Regional Tradition."

Nancy Meem Wirth's vision of a volume dedicated to the residences designed by her father are elegantly represented in the text by Chris Wilson and photographs by Robert Reck of "Facing Southwest, says Jan Dodson Barnhart, donor programming coordinator and former curator of the John Gaw Meem archives.

"The carefully chosen images of the exhibit are a tribute to the architect and the book --they create an exquisite representation of the work of the firm in the archival images and the solid reality of the structures depicted by the photographs. The collaboration of writing and images in the book and the exhibit provide us with a reason to celebrate again regional architecture as seen through the eyes of one of its most passionate devotees," she says.

# # #

The University of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
Hodgin Hall, 2nd floor
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0011
Telephone: (505) 277-5813
Fax: (505) 277-1981