Monte Verde Villa, Santa Fe, New Mexico Vacation Rental

Monte Verde Villa is Santa Fe's initial foray into truly world class accommodations. A private resort with a personal scope; a staff of 3 includes an onsite housekeeper, maintenance person, and groundskeeper, for the 23,000 sqft, 6 bedroom layout. The Villa features several living spaces, galleries, and abundant kitchen areas. Additionally, the pool and hot tubs are a favorite as are the game rooms and terraces.

Befitting this high-desert terrain originally settled by the ancient Pueblo people called the Anasazi—known for the dwellings they carved into cliffs—the lower half of the house is buried in a hillside, its presence made even more inconspicuous by a series of landscaped roofs.

In recent years, the environmental movement has given rise to an evolving design aesthetic composed of hundreds of clevernesses. In many ways, this crème de la crème of eco-residences is an elegant disappearing act: Its chameleonesque attributes include roof gardens irrigated by rainwater, a gray-water system that filters and recirculates water from showers and sinks to underground cisterns, and, tucked between trees on a terraced hillside, solar panels that heat the house's radiant floors and swimming pool. Drought-tolerant native plants are in abundance, while artificial turf laid over recycled tires provides a swath of green where children can play. Rock excavated from the site was crushed in place and used for gravel, and boulders were kept for landscaping.

The house wraps around the crest of a hill on three sides, with sweeping views of the city, the Santa Fe ski basin and the distant Jemez mountains. Shunning Southwest clichés, Blonkvist designed a contemporary post-and-beam system inspired by Japanese joinery; outside, durable copper tubing and copper-clad wood beams safeguard against the rot that might affect traditional vigas and latillas. Ample clerestory windows and skylights allow for daytime reading without artificial light, while doors can slide into walls, inviting southeasterly, piñon-scented breezes.

At the heart of the complex is a curvilinear, copper-clad library—as much a piece of sculpture as architecture, the textured surface evocative of the woven-silver jewelry. Around the structure, water cascades over polished black granite forms and through steel troughs, a delightful ode to the ear and eye.

The library, whose floors were made from scrap wood salvaged from the construction site, is conceived as an anthropomorphic entity with curved rib-like wooden supports. Textured native stone walls running north and south. The emotional center and main interior public area is the gallery, a light-filled space in which Douglas fir beams are angled like an abstract forest.

Check-in: 4:00 PM

Check-out: 10:00 AM

Children are welcomed

No pets

No smoking

No parties/events

Rates vary depending on time of year

High season and holiday rates are higher

4 to 7 night minimum (based on season and arrival date)

Taxes/fees additional

Refundable damage deposit required

50% down to book

Balance due 60 days prior

Please bring proof of identification

Travel insurance recommended

All bookings are final

Rates and fees subject to change without notice