As the crow flies, only a few miles separate the Tesuque, New Mexico, home of Richard and Helen Brandt from the Santa Fe Opera.  Remembering that closeness brings analogies to mind:  a structure merged with its ridge-top site above an arroyo; distant mesas polka-dotted with dark cedars and junipers; the rhythmic alternation in perspective between spectacular distance and secluded enclosure.

            The home sits on a double lot the couple purchased in 1986.  It was several years before the Westport, Connecticut, residents – frequent Santa Fe visitors and knowledgeable collectors of western regional art – realized they wanted to make the New Mexico property the site of their future permanent home. 

            “I learned the language of the Southwest on the fast track while the project was already in process,” says Helen of the experience that began, after a search, with the selection of DeWindt & Associates as their architects.  At the Brandts’ invitation, Lila and Adrian DeWindt traveled to Connecticut, where all four worked to develop the program.  Guided by the words “dramatic” and “sophisticated,” the DeWindts produced, over the next eighteen months, seventy pages of two-by-three drawings.

            Before these two-dimensional images became floors and walls, Helen brought interior designer Deena Perry of Habitat into the team.  Fore the next three years, Helen’s monthly schedule included a week to ten days of work in New Mexico, followed by sessions with Richardin Connecticut, reviewing every sketch and swatch.  As carefully coordinated as an operatic production, the residence shows the painstaking care that went into every well-scripted move.

            Iron gates open to the parking court.  Forged by Tom Joyce to resemble mesas, they introduce the house and adjacent guesthouse – structures that together seem to embrace visitors, suggesting warmth and hospitality.

            That impression is reinforced by the sculpted inner landscape which awaits beyond double doors etched with cloud patterns by Lila DeWindt.  Charles Moody modeled the walls as reflections of northern New Mexico’s undulating cliffs.  According to Helen, she and Adrian traveled the state to find the earth pigments that were sifted and mixed with plaster to become the ochre, rose, soft gray, and other tints now visible on the striated walls.

            In the foyer, the floor of Alaskan buff flagstone continues from the outdoor portal.  Sunlight filters in through four-inch tubular skylights.  On certain winter dawns, the first sunrays cast cloud shadows from the door panes onto the fantasy cliffs.

            The entry provides psychological preparation for the romance realized in the remainder of the house.  For each room, Helen has a story to tell.  Of the living room, for example she recalls differing with her husband about the floor covering.  “Richard likes wall-to-wall carpeting,” says Helen, who prefers wood floors and rugs. “I compromised,” she says, pointing up toward the beams, between which the ceiling is “carpeted” with deep red panels woven by three generations of weavers represented by the Ortega Gallery in Chimayo.

            Richard’s grand piano animates one corner, from which he enjoys playing for friends.  The view from his piano seat extends across the room through a window’s framed view, a dramatic reminder of the spectacular natural setting this is never far removed from the interior spaces.

            On the butternut wall behind the sofa, nichos hold gleaming examples of pueblo pottery from the Brandt’s collection.  These miniature stages, like the ceiling and table lamps, are illuminated with separate controls in a manner designed to enhance the room’s warm emotional tone.  The attention to lighting is no surprise given that the Brandts are the principals of Trans-Lux Theaters, manufacturers of lighted signs and produces of multi-media shows.

            In the area of materials selection, Helen showed special ingenuity.  She went to a stone yard in Los Angeles to scout out marble slabs and sandstone.  With Perry, she toured furniture markets. To locate wood for a unique partners’ desk designed by Lila DeWindt, Helen sent cabinetmaker Bob Richardson of Wood Design to Florida, where he found a 300-year old southern yellow pine log overlooked in a millpond for eighty years.  The greenish slate of the kitchen floor came from a Vermont quarry, while for the cupboards; Adrian DeWindt was able to secure some of the last available Alaskan cedar.

            Of all the home’s rooms, the kitchen is perhaps, Helen’s favorite.  “I like to cook a lot,” she says, admitting that she appealed to the DeWindts for a design that would encourage Richard to keep her company during her creative culinary sessions.  Their solution was a little banco – customized to his proportions – where he can read his paper and watch television.  With its seating and dining areas, adjacent pantry and laundry, the kitchen truly serves as the heart of the home.

            The DeWindts’ artistry is a presence felt throughout the house.  In the gallery hall that resembles an incomplete Moorish arch, for example, they installed an ingenious hidden clerestory and recessed lighting above the cloth-covered walls.

            Perry contributed the rich palette that gives each room a distinct mood.  The office wall’s color is that of old leather, the result of multiple stippling.  Woodwork in the kitchen is tripled-washed to a mellow gray-green patina.  The Ortega weavers’ deep red is repeated on the dining room chairs, upholstered furniture in the dean and even the red ramitas (“little twigs”) set in diagonal patterns on shutters, cabinets, and a ceiling.

            The Brandt’s collection of folk art, prints, paintings, and ceramics now occupies special nichos, a display ledge, and wall areas.  Allan Houser’s Going Home, a dark verdigris bronze, enjoys the most dramatic placement along the edge of the arroyo just beyond the dining room and its outdoor portal.

            Although Helen can claim ultimate responsibility for the home, she deflects attention to her talented team.  “This project,” she says, “was a real partnership of the architect, the owners, the designer, and the craftsmen.”  Burned into her memory as a once-in-a-lifetime-experience is the moment that might be called the house’ premier.  Accustomed to finalizing the details in her own work, Helen recalls the thrill of having the curtain go up on this completed project.  “Deena was the ‘unveiler,’” she says.  “We walked in to find that she’d put everything in place and had flowers all around.  It was quite moving.”