Home Building: All that Architectural Jazz

Feb. 4—Among the honors given out last December by the American Institute of Architects Santa Fe chapter as part of its AIA 2023 Design Awards, the one that went to what was essentially the best house was the Commendation Award for the Maul/Harnar Residence. The architect was Michael Krupnick of Santa Fe's Krupnick Studio Architecture. But as the refreshingly self-effacing Krupnick would be the first to point out—and did—the owner of the house, Jeff Maul (who also founded and owns Santa Fe Awning) came to Krupnick and said, I have a dream. Can you help me? "I was like, Absolutely," recalls Krupnick, who's about to leave for a monthlong recharge in Bali (with one of his current clients, the sculptor Kevin Box). "I love creative clients."

Maul, who's partners with Lori Harnar, the widow of the late legendary New Mexico architect Jeff Harnar (whose most renowned public buildings would be the Jean Cocteau Cinema and the Santa Fe Children's Museum), wanted an "aging-in-place version" of the [Jeff Harnar-designed] house he'd been in—which was at the top of a mountain and had about 350 steps from the driveway to the front door, far enough away that it had a tram (for transporting beer and furniture). I'm getting old, Maul had said. I can't walk that far every day for the rest of my life. I need a grownup version of the house I've lived in the past 30 years. A Harnar house. This is that house—but the 2.0 version.

"I tap into the energy of my clients and we go back and forth," says Krupnick of his process, who cut his architectural teeth in Florida and Arizona before setting up his own studio in Santa Fe in 1995. "I call myself a co-designer. Jeff and I co-designed his space. But it's always my client's vision. I help them art direct and guide them toward the final product."

Maul knew what he wanted: steel and glass. And then more steel and glass. Western-facing glass. With a dining room table that's suspended from the ceiling by a steel cable—so it sways. Like a sailboat. Like a glass-and-steel sailboat coming out of the side of the mountain.

Started a year before the pandemic lockdown and finished in 2023 (though Haul will likely be tinkering with it forever), when he was ready to move in Maul marveled to Krupnick, I can't believe I built this thing. It's so beautiful. "That's my job is to take his vision and his skill and his talents and make it beautiful and functional," says Krupnick. "Jeff was taking a giant risk. We didn't know if it was gonna work. We went on the adventure together. And it did work."

Looking very much like a high-desert Neutra house, Krupnick sees it as integrated very much with the land and nature. And reflective of New Mexican culture. "My favorite art form in New Mexico is the low rider. And this is definitely a low rider of the architecture world."

Krupnick doesn't really work for awards or fame. In most ways, though, he embodies what the AIA Santa Fe is all about: community and communalism. As its executive director Tom Spray said, "I believe the community would be interested in these awards because architects help to shape our surroundings, and as we navigate our daily lives, much of what we see is a result of their creativity. People naturally want to know what's happening in their community, especially when it comes to seeing the best work in the Santa Fe area that has been recognized by a jury of professionals."

The judges praised the Maul/Harnar house thusly: "This project stood out from other residential entries. ... It reads as a multigenerational experiment in difficult sites, ethereal structures with experiential doors and furniture. The jury was intrigued to understand how, rather than imposing style or preferences, the architect served as a medium for the owners to tell the story and pay homage to Jeff Harnar, one of New Mexico's originals. ... The collaboration of Owner, Artist, and Architect succeeds in execution of an 'idea.' "

People often ask Krupnick who his favorite architect is and he tells them: Miles Davis (despite citing a background working under Scottsdale, Arizona's "Boulder House" architect Charles Johnson—"I learned how to be kind of fearless and organic by working with him"—who worked under Richard Neutra, who worked under Frank Lloyd Wright). "I like the jazz approach to architecture," says Krupnick, who's not at all ashamed to add he does everything from "high rises to chicken coops."

He loves adobe, and mixes it as much as he can with contemporary modernist theory and design. Along with what he'd learned from his wife, alongside whom he's worked half his career. "I honestly learned how to design with a feminine touch by working with her," says Krupnick. Her influence came in the form of the lime plaster on the walls, "that really softened it up. And we brought the outside in—we put boulders in the living room." A very Harnaresque touch.

Aside from his Bali retreat with Box and the 20 or so other projects he always has going, he's working on a transitional living center in Española for drug rehab (converting an old motel into an Austin-style boutique hotel for people in recovery) and a container village food truck complex in Ohkay Owingeh for a Native food-truck group.

Though some saw Maul as difficult, Krupnick saw a bit of a soulmate. "He wakes up every day ready to see what the world has to offer."

To see all of 2023's Design winners, go to: www.aiasantafe.org/2023designawards.

Saguna Severson graduated with a BA in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, College of Environmental Design. After going off to study architecture in Japan, she moved to Santa Fe and has never looked back. Working first for Santa Fe architects, she then went for an MA in Counseling Psychology, and is now the Marketing Director at Zachary and Sons Homes at: zacharyandsons.com