|  | | Rediscovering Plazas in New Mexico | by Jason Miller and Peter J. Musty, CharretteCenter.com
 How can New Mexico communities resurrect plazas to renew pride and revitalize local economies while honoring local culture?
How can plazas help transform communities into more livable places for people of all ages?
What is a plaza as a public space type? Where should it go? How should it be repaired to make it happen again? How can it honor both daily and ritual uses?
These were the primary questions on the table during the “New Plazas for New Mexico” symposium held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on October 13, 2001. To help rein in answers, symposium organizers invited key speakers to explain the origins of plazas in New Mexico and to offer a path toward revitalization.
Plaza History
When the Spanish conquistadors of the 1500s landed on the shores of what is now South America, they found a vibrant Indian culture flourishing within a thoughtful urban pattern. Examples of Indian art show Indians and conquistadors fighting in plazas surrounded by arcades.
The conquistadors lived up to their name by obliterating the Indians and their way of planning. Settlement after settlement fell, replaced by the Spanish plan for development. But the Spanish weren’t foolish; they knew they had to create a plan for each new town. They knew they needed a guiding document, and so, in the late 1500s, they created the Laws of the Indies.
We don’t know who wrote the Laws of the Indies, which are a series of 142 ordinances meant to guide the Spanish place-making efforts. The presumption is that the Laws were written via clerical advice to the King. The Laws were lost till 1912, when they were rediscovered and the translations began. Three translations have since been written, but none of them are complete, even though an attempt at a complete translation is under way.
It would be a mistake to take the Laws as a perspective text. The buildings and land plans were drawn as the artist thought they should be, not necessarily as they were.
 The Laws of the Indies were respectful—to a point—of the existing template laid down by the Indians. Every time the Spanish decided to destroy an Indian settlement, the Laws dictated that they retain key planning elements and spatial considerations—not to mention building materials. For example, the Spanish destroyed existing temples, then used the space as a template to erect their new churches. The building typology that the Indians were using was easily modified by the Spanish. They took the foundations and placed a new Spanish roof on them. Monasteries, civic buildings—all were done in similar fashion.
The plaza and building typology were already there, built with foundations that were almost impossible to move away. The Spanish realized that they would have to leave those building types and build on top of them. The only thing that changed was the physical look of them. The Spanish syncretized the Indian approach with their own. And, for the new residents of their “new” towns, they created plazas.
They created rectangular plazas and square plazas, primarily. And they were big. Massive. The concept of a small street grid and plaza was nonexistent in the Laws of the Indies. Some plazas were molded into a defensive posture, with agricultural uses inside them, surrounded by exquisite building types. But all plazas were theaters of life; they were a point of focus for each town’s residents.
 The influence of the Laws of the Indies crept northward, into present-day New Mexico, which now possesses some of the best urbanism in the country. Santa Fe, for example, never saw the implementation of a regular street grid. In Santa Fe, the streets that line the plaza are crooked; they animate the plaza. Elsewhere in New Mexico can be found classic Laws-of-the-Indies plazas, and plazas that have evolved over time. But when Santa Fe discovered its roots in 1912, its people were stirred to remake the city in the image of Spanish and Pueblo architecture. Some buildings are still there, stripped, but waiting to be reborn. Today, the public realm and local economies of New Mexico are ready to be revitalized by using, in part, that time-tested urban element: the plaza.
New Plazas for New Mexico
Like the conquistadors, the planners at the forefront of this effort intend to use existing forms—and the Laws of the Indies—as guides. Ordinance number four is especially applicable: “If the boundaries are populated . . . take note of all you can learn and understand.” See what is there and add just a little bit more. Go. Look. Learn. Understand. Then proceed.
 Here are some basic elements of successful plazas:
• A simple form, not over-designed
• Water, greenery, murals
• Spaces that encourage conversations with companions or strangers
• Events that encourage drama, amusement, discovery
• Creation of an oasis from life’s pressures
The goal is to look to the past for inspiration and guidance, then improve on the precedent. For example, the regularity of past plazas (square and rectangular) could be played upon by creating a horseshoe-shaped plaza, as Moule & Polyzoides did in one of their projects. A canted plaza, a trapezoidal plaza—even irregular shapes would be good variations.
 When attempting plaza revitalization or designing new plazas, several guidelines are worth heeding:
1. Ask the town what it needs. Out of active listening to residents, design in neighborliness; stir up the vision. This creates settings with a deeper sense of meaning.
2. Observe current uses. Analyze what is celebrated, protested, commemorated, mourned; revitalize plazas to be relevant for 21st century uses.
3. Keep it local. Root plaza uses in culture, milieu and history; avoid trendy tourist attractions; focus on small changes, not the grand slam.
4. Attend to users’ needs and rights to create a plaza full of incidental civilities; avoid changes (uses) that over time make the heart go yonder. In other words, Love a place without being dangerous to it.
5. Review how the Laws of the Indies have lasted and endured. Keep the plaza flexible enough for different events.
6. Root in local climate, history, topography and building practice. Ensure the plaza is for people of all ages.
 7. To fund the revitalization, raise awareness, interest and excitement. Add quality design. The funds will follow.
8. Design in meeting and mingling; provide a rich mix of uses, interests and ages. Anchor surrounding streets.
9. Frame the plaza with buildings to avoid physical gaps; create synergy between the plaza and its buildings.
10. Design in freedom of activities, manage out insecurity; manage the feel of the plaza to sustain it for the long haul. |
 Why Build Plazas?
The plaza can be one of the most significant tools for social and economic revitalization. Its flexibility is almost without peer in the urban setting: It can host ceremonies and concerts; calm traffic and noise, accommodate a farmers’ market, a national retailer and artisan vendors with equal ease; allow restaurants and street vendors to operate side by side; build relationships among generations and strangers; and allow citizens to learn via Web access at a bus stop.
The plaza form can combat the bland and the banal environments that suburbia has woven into the American lifestyle. It can deliver us from the calamity of modernity and restore meaning to our public realm. It is a centuries-old answer to our ongoing question: How do we want to live?
The following are summary notes from New Plazas for New Mexico - Chihuahua As It Might Have Been - October 2001 in Santa Fe: |
| | | Laws of the Indies: The Roots of the Plaza (“Aborigen Syncretisms in the New American City”)
Presentation by Jaime Correa (Knight Prof. in Community Design, U of Miami) Notes by Jason Miller
Map of the world prior to 1492; in the center there is no America whatsoever. You can see Africa and Asia. America was just an idea then. “Canibali” is what the Europeans told the royalty when they returned to Europe: Americans are cannibals. |
| | Spanish Planning Ideals and Frontier Realities in New Mexico
Presentation by Chris Wilson Notes by Jason Miller
Anassazi: Spanish Colonial population was 2,000 in the 1600s. Pueblo population was much greater. These are multi-storied, mass buildings, families building in modular, 4-story structures. Buildings terrace down toward the warmth of the rising sun. In the foreground are the circular religious chambers. In the Pueblo religion there’s a sense of the cycling of life energy; it comes in and goes out through the smoke hole. |
| | The American Plaza Form (The Ideal and the Real or The Invention of the American City)
Presentation by Jean-Francois Lejeune Notes by Jason Miller
We don’t know who wrote the Laws of the Indies. The presumption is that they were written via clerical advice to the King. The Laws are made up of 142 different ordinances, written around 1592 and lost till 1912. There were three translations made, but none are complete. We’re redoing them now. The Laws were a rural system of planning; anyone who built in the city was obliged to do something in the countryside. |
| | The Plaza Revisited
Presentation by Stefanos Polyzoides Notes by Jason Miller
I was born in Greece; I watched bulldozers destroy traditional neoclassical Athens right in front of my eyes. I asked, “WHY?” I watched the dangerous streets being created, 7 and 8-story buildings with dingy interiors. Modernity, as we are all experiencing it in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, is a kind of plague. |
| | New Plazas for New Mexico
Presentation by Ken Hughes, AICP Notes by Jason Miller
How can New Mexico communities resurrect plazas to renew pride and revitalize local economies while honoring local culture? How can plazas help transform communities into more livable places for people of all ages? What is a plaza as a public space type? Where should it go? How should it be repaired to make it happen again? How can it honor both daily and ritual uses? Ponder these questions as your creating a new plaza or revitalizing. |
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