Property: Casa la Luna at 10 Altazano Drive.
Realtor: Stephanie Duran of Barker Realty/Christie’s.
Theme: Ancient Future
Participating Designers: 19
Attendance: 3,000
History of the Property: Casa La Luna sits on 10 wooded acres at the edge of the Santa Fe National Forest. Just minutes away from downtown, this 13,000-square-foot 1920s-era granite estate features panoramic views and rustic seclusion amid old-growth pinons and junipers, arroyos and ancient rock formations.
The original section of the house was built for a prominent Philadelphia family, its walls constructed of stone quarried onsite. It boasts a coffered ceiling of rosewood in the living room, Rookwood Pottery fireplaces, and cherrywood paneling, cabinentry, and doors. The owners brought in the Wolf Corp. for the 10,000-square-foot addition, which was completed in 2006. The architect was Meisa Batayneh, founder and principal at Maisam Architects & Engineers, Amman, Jordan.
The owners contributed to the restoration of ancient mosaics in the Holy Land and to the founding in the late 1990s of a mosaic school in Jordan. A large tile mosaic at the house’s front entry was gifted by the school. On its panels are reproduced figures from the Madaba map, a floor mosaic that is at least 15 centuries old and is reputed to have been built to commemorate the place of Moses’ death. The entryway ceiling bears an Egyptian artist’s mango-wood carvings of Egyptian motifs of welcome and longevity.
Bridging the older and newer sections of the home is a mezzanine area that architect Batayneh called the “village” because it recalls a Mediterranean village stepping up a hillside. The space includes the entry to the natatorium holding an Olympic-size, infinity-edge pool.
A courtyard fountain was designed around the cardinal points and the four elements — earth, air, water, fire — as a symbol of unification, of the brotherhood of mankind. Designed by the owners themselves, it incorporates a porcelain piece commissioned of artist Hazem Al-Zubi of Amman, Jordan.
Quotes: “That’s what happens when people have a higher purpose,” Duran added.
