Contemporary Castle Keep on 312 Secluded Acres

Located on abundant private acreage about 30 minutes from the town of Taos, NM, this isolated fortress, complete with koi-stocked moat and resplendent views, will give you and yours the privacy and comfort you desire without sparing high-end, state-of the-art fixtures, finishes, fittings, and appliances. Multiple redundant layers of robust water and energy systems create a self-contained setting with three houses and a large barn, allowing absolute independence no matter what Mother Nature and the world might have in store for us. 

The main house, an entirely custom-designed 4,000-square-foot cast-in-place concrete structure that affords magnificent views of the surrounding mountains and high desert, is fashioned in the Brutalist style that was brought forward by such renowned 20th-century designers as Paul Rudolph, Le Corbusier, and the Bauhaus’ Marcel Breuer. The style, which grew out of post-war modernism, celebrates the beauty and integrity of structural materials without adding unnecessary ornament. 

Full of well-thought-out details - such as a dumb waiter that rises from the garage to the primary structure’s main floor to allow easy transport of groceries and firewood from one level to the next, windows set deep in beveled concrete recesses that cast interesting and beautiful shadows depending on the direction of the sun, radiant heating throughout the floors and in the walls, as well as 3,000 feet of exterior soapstone-covered walkways and decks - this home and the compound of which it is part make for an unparalleled experience.  A fan of JRR Tolkien, the conceptualizer of this mountaintop aerie has created a super-contemporary castle keep designed to encourage the power of boundless imagination.

Some of the exceptional features and materials found here include:

• custom-designed stainless steel vents for an air exchange system that completely replenishes the air every hour
• a house-wide humidified air cooling system, as well as refrigerated air
• handmade fireplace doors
• unusually large propane storage tanks dedicated for each structure
• vast solar arrays
• multiple backup generators
• six boilers
• two wells, both over ¼-mile deep
• a 100-zone irrigation system watering 500 ponderosa pines and aspens 
• 8 ft tall solid core Alaskan Cedar interior doors
• Alaskan woods
• Brazilian soapstone
• German zinc roofing 
• Italian cabinetry
• Canopies that span both the North and South decks
• All glass greenhouse
• Insulation: R-60 ceilings, R-40 walls

Says the current owner, who developed and designed this one-of-a-kind ranch in the foothills of the southern Rockies over a period of more than 20 years with the tenets of form, function, flow, and balance in mind, “the whole thing speaks like a piece of sculpture.” 

Taos Regional Airport is just 15 miles down the road and has a cross wind runway that can land from private, up to small commercial jets.