former designer, general contractor, and instructor at the New Mexico School for the Arts, Jacob Sisneros now serves as Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s preservation specialist and programs manager. The organization catalogs historic properties, advises on their preservation, and educates the public on the diverse cultural heritage of the Santa Fe area. More than 100 structures, properties, and landscapes appear on the foundation’s register as worthy of preservation (learn more at historicsantafe. org) — and many began as adobe homes. Sisneros, a 15th-generation New Mexican, is also restoring his own adobe house.

Here he reflects on a fundamental truth of adobe building: It’s a constant process of maintenance and evolution as new generations adapt dwellings to their current needs.

AHistorically, how have adobe homes been remodeled and expanded?

That tended to happen in a linear fashion, unless people were of deep-pocketed means, where they would start to think about a horseshoe shape. The standard was to add a room in a linear fashion, with a doorway in the center connecting to the new room. We see this playing out at El Zaguán [Historic Santa Fe Foundation headquarters], which is one long rectangle created by the addition of one room after another along a central access with a door in the middle.

What are other hallmarks of adobe design on display at El Zaguán?

The thickness of the walls. It’s really cool to look at a window, where the opening’s slightly angled and splayed, to see the full thickness of the wall. It has double-thick adobe walls — 24 inches thick and more in some areas.

How can people honor the history and architecture of private adobe homes but update them for today’s lifestyle?

For someone who is contemplating renovating an adobe home, I suggest honoring the simplicity of traditional adobe architecture — simple window openings, door openings. Not a lot of jogs in volumes and simple volumes. Rectangular spaces are the norm rather than things that have stepped sightlines on the buildings.

What do you see people getting right about adobe home preservation in Santa Fe?

I think the historic districts guidelines, as restrictive as they can feel to a homeowner, have helped to maintain a certain silhouette, a certain language that’s part of adobe architecture. I think that’s helped prevent garish intrusions or ostentatious remodels or additions, especially with people who come to the area and don’t have a sensitivity to adobe architecture. I find that appreciation [for adobe] grows on us the more time we spend here.

Responsible preservation can feel burdensome or bureaucratic to some homeowners. What do you advise?

I think there’s a myth around the Santa Fe Historic Districts Review Board that has an air of negativity. The actual process is not that complicated. Once you get down to it [the requirements] are quite basic. To homeowners who are in the historic districts, I would say, “It’s a lot less complicated than the myth is.”

What do you see homeowners getting wrong with remodeling adobe dwellings?

Scale. I’ll often drive around town and see the older core or bones of an adobe building. Then I’ll see an addition with a garish contrast. It’s just maybe homeowners who aren’t looking for professional design input and just getting permits themselves to work on a project — adding something that’s twice as large or twice as long and not respecting the original footprint. There’s a way to increase scale sensitively with gradual height elevations.

Tell me about restoring your own adobe home.

One of the first goals for me was increased headspace. There are a couple arched openings that are just over 5 feet 4 inches; I have to duck every time I walk through. I increased the ceiling height. In the kitchen, I ripped off the ceiling and found 2 feet of additional

headspace. It was great to discover what was underneath. I also removed multiple layers of cement-based plaster until I reached the mud-based plaster. I left a section of the kitchen that shows the mud-based plaster that’s original to the 1920s core of the house.

What should people know about maintaining their adobe homes today?

We have to remind ourselves that for the people who lived in New Mexico for millennia, adobe dwellings were modest-sized buildings. Even after the colonists arrived, their buildings were quite small in footprint. Fast forward to [this] century; we have a different notion of what is the proper scale of a domicile and a standard home for the nuclear family. These buildings have started to expand — the average residence in Santa Fe is between 1,800 and 3,000 square feet — and those maintenance issues start to increase.

One of the biggest enemies to adobe is moisture penetration — for example, from a roof leak that continues to leak and gets into the wall cavity. That becomes exacerbated when the adobe is plastered with cement-based material. It can trap moisture. If an adobe wall is not allowed to vacate moisture, the load-bearing capacity of the adobe wall will diminish and create a dangerous situation.

Another place moisture penetration can happen is at ground level. Homeowners should have an awareness of how water drains away from the structure as well as a keen awareness of how moisture wicks away from window frames and doorjambs, which are other places prone to water infiltration.

When possible, I recommend homeowners who are renovating remove any kind of cement plaster in a wall to allow it to ventilate and remove moisture trapped in a wall. If possible, replaster with earth-based plaster or a lime-based plaster, which is also porous enough to allow for air filtration.