Taos City Zoning Code
§ 16.16.220.5
Taos Valley architecture.
A.
For purposes of understanding and classifying the historic styles and evolution of Taos architecture, the following architectural distinctions can be made:
1.
Classical Pueblo Period Style: Before 1275 (Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon);
2.
Pueblo IV Period Style: 1275-1598 (Taos Pueblo);
3.
Pueblo V Period; Spanish Colonial Period Pueblo-Spanish Style: 1598-1848 (in line contiguous room structure surrounding an open area);
4.
Hispanic Vernacular Style: Popular locally from 1780-1900. Also covers modest, linear, flat roofed, owner built houses through approximately 1950. Includes most early construction in Taos;
5.
Territorial Style: 1846-1912. Includes both flat roofs and pitched roofs;
6.
Folk Territorial (Folk Victorian) Style: 1880-1910. Similar to Territorial Style, but with inventive carpenter details such as “carpenter gothic” jigsaw work, or mass produced, lathe turned, slender columns and Italianate/Queen Anne style brackets;
7.
New Mexico Vernacular Style: 1880-1910. Linear forms, adobe construction and pitched metal roofs, lacking any detail from the Territorial or Folk Territorial styles;
8.
Revival Period:
a.
Colonial Revival Style or Spanish/Pueblo Revival Style: 1908 to present. The combination of Pueblo and Spanish traditions employed in a self-conscious return to the historical traditions of this century. Indicated by portales or buildings with many carved corbel capitals or the ornamental use of exposed viga ends. Most buildings on and around Taos Plaza are of this style.
b.
Territorial Revival Style: 1945 to present. Most have pitched metal or shingled roofs and also frequently employ simple Italianate/Queen Anne style brackets. Chambered, square posts usually replace the lathe turned columns that would have been combined with brackets in the late 1800s.
(Ordinance 11-04 adopted 2011)