Life is good. Sure I've got my fingers crossed as I write this (making typing a bizarre chore) hoping by the time this issue of SFR hits the streets, we'll have elected a mayor with some vision and a City Council capable of something, anything, beyond bickering, but life is good. Of course if it looks like, once again, people under 150 years old largely failed to vote, despite the ongoing efforts of folks like the League of Pissed Off Voters who disseminate the 'zine-like "Vote or Die" guide to candidate's credentials, I may have to pry my eyes out in a frustration-induced act of dual spork abuse. The guide was riddled with peppery asides like this zinger from Plato: "One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." But if that kind of encouragement wasn't enough to get more than a few thousand people out and voting, well, I'll be forced to gently knock my skull against the wall until teeth begin to shake loose and a flat spot develops across my face. But life is good, and looking like a deformed pirate has got to be cool somewhere, right? Faith in Santa Fe (how appropriate is that?) is the reason everything is coming up woses in Zane's World. Even if our new gang at City Hall proves equally quagmired by the task of rolling the ball, two recent projects have me convinced that government, proactive or inactive, won't stop Santa Feans from building a better city with a better scene.
While rumors continue to wing through the city that Don Wiviott is still having trouble getting his live/work development on the Railyard to move forward, partly due to lingering feelings at City Hall and elsewhere about The Lofts developer's controversial project at Marquez Place, those selfsame Lofts at Marquez Place have quietly become an epicenter of design talent. Most recently VIDA Design (
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opened its doors with a shingle hung adjacent to, surprise, controversial progressive architect Trey Jordan. There's little to be persnickety about at VIDA, however, and quite a lot to be appreciative of. The designs at this point consist of a svelte and gorgeous furniture line from the mind of excellent contemporary photographer Zoe Danae Falliers. The double-level loft design studio (1012 Marquez Place #108-B, 913-9844, by appointment only) is elegantly packed with birch ply modernist interpretations of a few simple chairs, including the classic club chair; polished, comfortable and precise dining tables and chairs crafted from light yet earthy "wormy maple"; and several pieces, from stools and sling chairs to two very swanky harnero cabinets, with hand-forged iron accents. Falliers has complemented her furniture pieces with her own capable photos, a selection of astonishing, minimally presented early American farm implements from the collection of Will Channing, hand-woven textiles from Weese + Design and a selective assortment of art on sale, including modest works by Sol Lewitt, Florence Pierce, Kiki Smith and Robert Kelly. It all melds well together, all the more so because of Falliers' spirit of collaboration and the philosophy that comes with each VIDA piece.
"I'm trying to get at something more elemental and authentic than Santa Fe Style," she says, "and to be in stride with the modernist architecture that's popping up all through the Rocky Mountain corridor." To turn that design aspiration into a business, Falliers went through local support organizations and development programs like Santa Fe Economic Development Incorporated (
). The result is overtly modern furniture, with lines classic enough to suit any room, and all of it produced from woods carefully chosen for sustainability as well as beauty and crafted to Falliers" specifications only by New Mexico artisans.
"It really is a collaboration," says Falliers of her designs manifested by local woodworkers and blacksmiths Prosser Forge. "I don't do those crafts personally so we work together to figure it out. I've found that if you approach people in a spirit of openness and collaboration they really give you their best." If the feeling I get from sitting in VIDA's club chair while contemplating the subtle marks of a Lewitt print across the room is anything to go by, it's true.
I don't know if it's a "hundredth monkey," quantum theory type of thing, a wild coincidence, or just another day in Santa Fe, but openness and collaboration are also at the bedrock of Village Development of America or, you guessed it, ViDA. The baby of local contractor and dedicated idealist Brian Skeele, ViDA is angling to create housing developments where "neighbors can live, work, shop, play, age in place and thrive all within walking distance." Skeele, the kind of guy who will call up a stranger and invite him over for prolonged bouts of ranting, daydreaming and scheming about, say, green, modern prefab housing-trust me from personal experience-has been hosting a series of meetings, eagerly sopping up the ideas and needs of whoever shows up, in an effort to build houses that, beyond being affordable and conservation-minded, somehow matter. So far, how people want to live, including ideas about common areas, shared resources and transportation and radical reshuffling of age and income stria, have dictated Skeele's ideas-boring hang-ups like building codes and all that can come later. And come they will; ViDA is putting heavy consideration into developing a block of properties at the finally approved urbanist concept Oshara Village (
). Still, even if compromises need to be made, it's people like Skeele, with a commitment to trying to do it right and make it meaningful, who will finally get rid of the rash Santa Feans develop when they hear the word "developer." To get a taste of what living la ViDA local might be like, visit Skeele's site at
. If life ain't good now, well, it certainly could be.
