A Modern Route 66 Style Icon?

Beach Apartments, A Route 66 Style Icon

First of all, I’ll admit that this is a personal, highly subjective opinion. As a photographer, I am drawn to color first in any setting. For that reason, I am drawn to the Beach Apartments in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico on old Route 66. It demonstrates creative use of color in the southwestern idiom.

Now, this is not the most luxurious complex in Albuquerque. These are affordable apartments obviously built on a stringent budget. But I certainly consider it one of the most stylish modern structures on Albuquerque’s ‘Mother Road.’ Its striking pastel and earth-tone color palette is well complimented by the strong warm New Mexico sun that most often adorns it.

The architecture has a touch of classic Route 66 kitsch, as befits its ‘Mother Road’ address. In the Route 66 tradition, it makes highly creative use of common local building materials. Beach Apartments are located across from the ABQ BioPark in downtown Albuquerque intersected by the Rio Grande and its tree lined bosque. It gets its name from Tingley Beach, the man-made fishing ponds located just beyond this development.

Beach Apartments was designed by Albuquerque architect Antoine Predock. He describes it as “a big 74 unit low-rider, parked on the historic main street of our country, Route 66,” and “an abstraction of Highway 66 iconography.”  – Albuquerque, A City at the End of the World

The Beach Apartments make a colorful, unabashed statement that makes it right-at-home on the “Mother Road.” Is this is a modern Route 66 style icon? It certainly has my vote!

[email protected], the man in the white hat.

Here’s a view of the Rio Grande and its lush bosque just across the street from the Beach Apartments!

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