From Huff Post:
“Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin won’t be able to build a seven-sided, castle-style library at his compound in Santa Fe that drew objections from neighbors.
The city’s Historic Districts Review Board on Tuesday denied a request to allow Martin to exceed the building height limit in the historic district where he lives, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. The project included a roof deck and an elevator tower.
“It is a medieval castle, and I don’t understand how we could possibly approve it in this style,” board member Frank Katz said.
Mark Graham lives south of the property and said residents couldn’t “support having a castle in the neighborhood.”
“With the notoriety of Mr. Martin and ‘Game of Thrones,’ we absolutely fear that our neighborhood will become the next treasure hunt, that his fans will be looking to find the castle that’s in the middle of Santa Fe,” Graham said.
. . . .
Alexander Dzurec with the architecture firm Autotroph Inc. filed the application for the height exemption and said Tuesday that the library was intended to house “a very sizable collection” of literature and “other collectibles.”
Link to the rest at Huff Post
Relying strictly on a brief online search, PG came up a couple of images for George R.R. Martin’s house in Santa Fe. It looks pretty much like a lot of other buildings in Santa Fe – reminiscent of Santa Fe’s early history. Here are a couple of links – House 1 and House 2 – PG doesn’t know if either depicts a residence which Mr. Martin owns or not.
Anyone who has spent more than 30 minutes in downtown Santa Fe should reasonably understand that the city is both very proud and very protective of its quite ancient (particularly by US standards) architectural history.
Here are a handful of Stanta Fe photos.
By Shiny Things – originally posted to Flickr as San Miguel Chapel, CC BY 2.0, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Asaavedra32 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Asaavedra32 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
MichaelEBM – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
If Martin moved a little outside of town he could build whatever he wanted. There are plenty of bizarre homes/structures scattered all around the town.
– As long as walking tourists can’t see them, they are allowed.
Everything you see in Santa Fe today is a facade to please the tourists and the rich. As the rich moved in to downtown on the East side, the displaced locals moved to south west Santa Fe to build modern homes.
It’s all about gentrification.
The G-Word
Drawing links between gentrification, displacement, art and growth in Santa Fe
30 January 2018
https://www.sfreporter.com/news/coverstories/2018/01/31/the-g-word/
Look at the map at the start of the article. Open it as its own tab so you can zoom in.
I’m in the lower left, almost dark red section, labeled 63. A brand new subdivision, less than 30 years old, with an apartment complex standing along the street, with a trailer park across the street from that. The airport, and sewage treatment plant, and gun range directly West, on the other side of the Bypass.
I, and a few non Hispanics in the neighborhood, keep it from being fully Hispanic. There is me, and my neighbors across the street, who are Middle Eastern, that keep the numbers low. HA!
This will give you an idea of how Santa Fe looked a century ago.
MOMENTS IN TIME | Through the Lens: Imaging Santa Fe | New Mexico PBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNa-1Tlrvu0
Those “mud huts” they mention are now going for millions.
If I had big money I would buy what used to be the College of Santa Fe.
wiki – Santa Fe University of Art and Design
The library is beautiful. I would go there just to wander through it. I worked with one of the guys who designed it. He was an amazing old guy from Italy, who survived WWII and lived for a while in communist Czechoslovakia. He ended up at the Highway Department as a Bridge Designer.
Nice background, A. Thanks.