The Sunmount Campus is a unique collection of Pueblo Revival style architecture, also known as the Santa Fe style, that spans the early development of the style in the 1910s, the refinement of the style in the 1920s and 1930s, and the modernization of the style in the 1960s.

The first campus building was designed by Isaac Rapp, a pioneer of the style who influenced the later work of John Gaw Meem during his stay at Sunmount in the 1920s. Meem was later involved in the complex's transformation from sanatorium to the Santa Fe Inn in the 1930s and his firm Meem, Zehner, and Holien designed the high school classrooms building constructed in 1951.

In the early 1960s, the firm of (John) McHugh and (Van Dorn) Hooker, Bradley P. Kidder and Associates completed numerous buildings on the Sunmount property for the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary. The partners in the firm had all formerly worked under Meem.

All of the architects of the various building periods were directly influenced by or had worked under the previous architects, and thus the complex represents a unique display of continuity and evolution of the Santa Fe style.

The course will review this history of the site in the early 20th century (prior to 1962) and outline the upcoming renovation of the entire site as the new home of the Modern Elder Academy.

 

Presenters:

Hunter Redman, AIA

Eric Enfield, AIA