Study Architecture 
ProPEL 
Author(s): Judith Birdsong
The church of San Francisco de Asis in Ranchos deTaos, NM, was built to provide spiritual succor to aremote outpost of New Spain in the few years priorto 1815; it has been in operation as a functioningparish church without interruption for over 200 yearssince. It was not designed by an architect, and bymost standards used to assess the success – or value– of a work of architecture, it fails. It certainly satisfiesits functional role well, but it makes no didacticdeclaration of intent; it doesn’t exemplify innovation,demonstrate mastery (of form or execution),or provide a scripted transformative experience.The source of its undeniable and enduring allure iselusive and seems to lie outside the realm of architectureas we “know” it.Any consideration of value must take into accountat least one of the nuanced definitions of “representation”– whether metaphorical, pictorial orarchetypal. Neither value or representation areneutral; both are dependent on time, circumstance,and motive (whether consciously driven or not) andcan be assigned by forces outside, and occasionallyantithetical to, the control of the architect or client.This paper explores the Ranchos church as a casestudy in intrinstic (locally decided) and extrinsic(externally imposed) value.
Volume Editors
Urs Peter Flueckiger & Victoria McReynolds
ISBN
978-1-944214-16-6
