Saturday, February 15, 2014

sawmill village

Sawmill Village is a recently erected apartment complex that resemble several others that have sprung up around central Albuquerque.  The site was occupied early in the Nineteenth Century by a huge sawmill, hence the  name.


Salient design features include bright colors and exposed duct work.  The Sawmill site also incorporates some artifacts presumably salvaged from its industrial past.  I'm uncertain to which architectural style the buildings should be assigned, perhaps IKEA with some assembly required.


Most of the people one sees at the site are workmen who are still in the process of completing the ground-floor shops.  The place does seem to have tenants; there are cars in the parking lot and bikes in the racks.


The crisp, new look of the place and the rather isolated location suggest a movie lot, which actually fits well with Albuquerque's aspirations to become the new Hollywood.  For me, the place brings to mind Sweethaven Village, the set built on the island of Malta for the 1980 musical, Popeye.

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