El Vado Update - March 2008

At last: news that Albuquerque is finally taking over the historic El Vado motel, saving it from demolition: City Obtains Historic El Vado Motel. Here's a snip:

Now the city is getting a look at the landmark's deterioration and hopes to re-open the motel as a museum or workplace for artisans.

The courts will determine how much the property is worth and the city will pay that amount to the current owner.

El Vado Update - February 2008

In the Albuquerque Tribune, Carrie Seidman updates efforts to save the El Vado Motel. The article emphasizes the cost, complexity, and range of unknown factors that continue to slow efforts to transform the Route 66 icon from empty "investment property" to a revitalized "destination motel," or, at least, a mixed-use iteration that maintains some semblance of the El Vado aura as a hybrid of motel and museum (for example). Here's a snip:

"Sometimes you just can't convert it to what it was, but you can preserve the building," [Richard Dineen, director of the city's Department of Planning] said. "Ideally, to get both is what we'd love to do. We are trying to hold out for that."

Read the entire piece: Albuquerque landmarks along Route 66 face slow process to preservation

El Vado Update - January 2008

Erik Siemers writes in The Albuquerque Tribune that the city's El Vado Motel has been granted a temporary reprieve, gaining local landmark status after a prolonged struggle between its owner and local preservationists.

According to city historic preservation planner Ed Boles, the Spanish Pueblo Revival motor court is a Route 66 classic. Here's a snip:

"Many sought the exotic charm in what were to them the beautiful and unfamiliar landscape and indigenous cultures of New Mexico," Boles said.

Although the El Vado's local landmark status ensures that a layer of bureaucracy separates owner Richard Gonzales from his plans of demolishing the property to build townhouses, the motel's future remains precarious.

Gonzales need only to prove that he'll lose money by operating the El Vado, either in its present state or after needed repairs.

Gonzales has so far refused to sell the property to the city.

Read the entire article, Albuquerque designates motel a city landmark, but owner can appeal decision.

Recent Articles:

February 7, 2007: National Trust: Albuquerque's El Vado Motel Saved

April 17, 2007: Albuquerque Tribune: City Council Recap

June 16, 2007: Albuquerque Tribune: El Vado Motel might be historic

(Photograph by Andrew Wood)

Favorite Places - Part 5 - El Vado Motel

The El Vado Motel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a Route 66 icon that just may survive the onslaught of "developers." Currently the motel is closed, but it is still standing. A fellow named Richard Gonzales now seeks permission to tear down most or all of the 1937 Pueblo Revival motel so he can build townhouses.

I stayed at the El Vado in 1996 on our family's first road trip, and I revisited the site in 2004 while attending a conference. Both times I enjoyed the chance to rent a cheap, clean, and comfortable room under the glow of a nearly perfect motel sign. I've heard rumors about meth labs and prostitutes, but the El Vado always seemed safe and friendly to me. More importantly, this motel has character.

The site's pueblo appearance reflects an age of highway travel when diners, bowling alleys, motels, and other otherwise forgettable places sought to lure motorists through themed appearances. Why stay in an anonymous motel room when you can stay in a Spanish hacienda or mission? Sure the effect went only to the facade; one motel room has always been like another (with a few delightful and bizarre exceptions). But after driving hundreds of miles, searching for a room in the setting sun, it's wonderful to pull into a place like the El Vado and experience a place worth remembering when the sun rises.

Destroying the El Vado would add another sad story to a tragic epic of wholesale abandonment of Route 66's motel history, places like the streamlined Coral Court south of St. Louis and the sublime Yukon and Big 8 motel signs east of Oklahoma City, which once greeted tired motorists with jaw-dropping beauty and design.

Fortunately, Albuquerque's landmarks and urban conservation commission has pushed back on Gonzales's plans, insisting that he offer far more justification for the destruction of a site that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places back in 1993. Right now the fate of the El Vado is kicking between the city council and its landmarks and conservation commission. Most observers think that the El Vado has escaped the wrecking ball, but one can never be too sure. This is one debate I intend to follow.

Updates:

February 7, 2007: National Trust: Albuquerque's El Vado Motel Saved

April 17, 2007: Albuquerque Tribune: City Council Recap

June 16, 2007: Albuquerque Tribune: El Vado Motel might be historic

(Photo by Jenny Wood)