Uto-Aztecan influence is strong here. The massive family of indigenous peoples and languages from the Great Basin down to Central America, imbues this region silently. The Utes, Shoshone, Navajo and Puebloan tribes created majestic early architecture embedded into our history of The West. From Hogans to cliff dwellings, their voices still speak in native architectural tongues.

This region spit out iconic artists like seeds . Our ideas of The West are the Art. Maynard Dixon landscapes inspired John Ford Films, which inspired Edward Abbey’s writings. The pottery of the Mata Ortiz follow the lines of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Donald Judd meets Marfa, or Modernism meets pioneer, we’re here for all of it.

The teepee, the cabin, the skull bone, turquoise, drift wood, timber, adobe, cow hide, and antler, all have one thing in common; they tactilely paint The West.

Whether the wooded mountains of the Rockies, or the arid deserts of the valleys, each region dictates native design. Native design knows passive solar and green building practices better than we even understand today. History should repeat itself.

Human scale. Appropriate ceiling heights. Honest materials. Useful, not wasteful. Humble gestures. Moments of Compression and Reveal. Scared spaces. Cinematic visual story telling. Further clarity and identity. A stronger voice to what it means to hold a sense of place. Rooted. Space to roam and discover. Restraint by necessity. Limited water. Scrappy self reliance and humility. Quietude. Tranquility. Solitude. Duality of Light and Dark. Stillness and motion.

Purposeful, often dual purpose. Flexibility.

We are the more attractive cousin of South West Modernism. Less cliche. Less bjangled jewlery and big hair. More refinement. More intelligent. Less cheese.