Project

Since the 2010 Watch announcement, WMF has been collaborating with the Taos Tribal Council to develop a model restoration project at the pueblo as well as document the site. The restoration project integrates restoration and training at a cluster of six interconnected historic dwellings. (...)

Since the 2010 Watch announcement, WMF has been collaborating with the Taos Tribal Council to develop a model restoration project at the pueblo as well as document the site. The restoration project integrates restoration and training at a cluster of six interconnected historic dwellings. The initiative expands upon a hands-on training and education program launched by Taos Pueblo in March 2010 that is designed to train a new generation of craftspeople in traditional skills. Through the restoration of the building, which was damaged by fire and abandoned over a decade ago, trainees will learn to restore adobe structures in accordance with national and tribal preservation standards. The project is scheduled to be completed by September 2011, by which time the adobe walls and the roofs consisting of latillas (branches used to cover the roof) and vigas (structural beams for the roof) will be restored. With the consent of the tribal office, WMF engaged CyArk to undertake laser scanning of the majority of the pueblo in 2010. The high resolution images and scans resulting from CyArk’s work can also be utilized for education, outreach, planning, and site interpretation, as well as used for developing conservation plans.

In the summer of 2011, the Taos Pueblo Preservation Program received an $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that will be used to complement WMF's current work at the site. Additional workers will be hired and trained in traditional construction techniques for conservation work, and workshops will be held for pueblo homeowners that focus on the maintenance of traditional adobe homes.

Conservation and reconstruction work on Sub-House 2, an 11-unit dwelling at the entrance to the pueblo, was completed in July 2012. Ten trainees, led by two supervisors, learned traditional construction methods while rebuilding most of the central two-story section of the building, which had been in a state of near-collapse. The units are now being re-occupied by their original families who will continue the cyclical maintenance tasks required for the building.