Behind Adobe Walls tours this month

A HOUSE AND GARDEN DESIGNED BY BEVERLEY SPEARS of Spears Horn Architects is one of the eight featured destinations of the 78th Behind Adobe Walls tour sponsored by the Santa Fe Garden Club. Held on two consecutive Tuesdays— July 18 and July 25— the tour features four different private homes and gardens each week by guided bus tour and showcases variety in both architectural styles and garden types.

The Spears-designed house features two barrel vaults, one over the main living space and one above the master suite. Finished inside with thin slats of slightly whitened clear pine, the vaults provide “a sense of light and space on the interior and a bold geometry for the exterior,” Spears said. “The house is designed as a sanctuary communicating with the outdoors. It is interactive requiring opening of windows as needed for nighttime cooling and management of solar heat gain.”

The house’s exterior walls are made of energy-efficient insulating concrete forms, while most interior walls are wood-frame. The passive solar house benefits by having a concrete interior wall that serves as thermal mass, moderating temperature extremes. There is also a photovoltaic array at the corner of the property and a rooftop hydronic array to complement the hot water supply from the gas-fired boiler.

A long rectangular fountain on the south side, against the house just outside the living room, reflects sunlight “for a play of shimmering light on the vaulted ceiling.” Just beyond is Spears’ Zen garden that she said “provides a simple, serene foreground against the middle ground of treetops and the far view of mountains beyond the Rio Grande Valley.” On a recent visit to the property, the Santa Fe Garden Club’s Barbara Templeman and Sue-Ellen deBeer observed plantings including rosemary, oregano, Ajuga, blue star juniper, blue spruce, knock out roses, ice plant, and thyme.

Proceeds from the Behind Adobe Walls tours benefit the Santa Fe Garden Club’s local education, beautification, and conservation projects, including Phase II of Ojos y Manos: Eyes and Hands Learning Laboratory at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden and the newly redesigned New Mexico Museum of Art courtyard garden.

Tour buses depart theHotel Santa Fe, 1501 Paseo de Peralta, at 12:10 p.m. on Tuesdays, July 18 and July 25, and return at 4:45 p.m. The cost to participate is $75 per person, per tour. For tickets, call 505- 984-0022 or 800-283-0122 or email terry@ westwindtravel.net. For more information, see www.thesantafegardenclub.org/newsandevents.html.— PaulWeideman

PHOTOS COURTESY BEVERLEY SPEARS