Experience

Hotel Chaco is an Albuquerque luxury resort designed by the international award-winning architectural firm, Gensler. A world leader in sophisticated, luxury design, Gensler's work is grounded in the belief that great design can make the everyday places people occupy more inspiring, more resilient and more impactful.

Award-winning interior designer Kris Lajeskie conceived Hotel Chaco’s interiors using subdued hues inspired by the natural wool variations employed by Navajo weavers. The hotel’s interiors juxtapose ancestral references with contemporary materials, furnishings, and original artwork.

“My mission is to evoke the spirit of Chaco through the use of coloration and materiality in the interiors,” shares Lajeskie. “In particular, we sought out Native artisans who were inspired to connect with their ancestry. From the moment you enter, your senses will be activated and you will know you are in a very special place.”

Hotel Chaco’s pale stone masonry façade and wooden accents are designed to work with the warm, dry climate of the Southwest and are reminiscent of architectural elements found at Chaco Canyon and in New Mexico’s pueblos. The hotel’s southern walls feature deeply recessed windows to protect guest rooms from excess heat in the summer, while the northern side of the building utilizes large windows that allow the low winter sun to warm the interiors, following the model of Chaco Canyon. The sandstone used for the exterior façade is sourced from the Colorado/New Mexico border and until now has never been used in a commercial project. Some of the original building materials used to build Chaco Canyon, including lumber, came from the same.

Stone banco seating lines the circular walls similar to structures found in Chaco Canyon. The roof structure is highlighted by vigas and latillas, traditional Southwestern architecture also evident at Chaco Canyon. A giant glass oculus designed by Tammy Garcia is the ceiling focal point. Wooden beams surround it in a traditional Hogan pattern. The concrete floor is unevenly polished to show the granite pebble aggregate reminiscent of a riverbed. The space also features original Native American artwork by Joe Cajero, Tony Abeyta, and Roxanne Swentzell.

Cylindrical clay pottery vessels with intricate black and white designs were also among the treasures found at Chaco Canyon. For decades, a mystery shrouded the actual purpose of these vessels. After tests conclusively found traces of cacao on the pottery, we now know that they were ceremonial vessels for special cacao elixirs. Kris Lajeskie has created these vessels for display at Hotel Chaco. Plans are also underway to create a special chocolate elixir to serve in the hotel.

Joe Cajero (Jemez Pueblo) is a sculptor working in clay and bronze. He creates clay originals, limited edition bronze sculptures and unique monumental commissions. Heritage Hotels & Resorts commissioned Cajero to create the centerpiece sculpture for Hotel Chaco’s lobby. Cajero’s experience as a Pueblo potter as well as his use of abstract imagery and an earth toned color palette make him the perfect fit for Hotel Chaco. 

Roxanne Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo) created the sculpture "The Guardian" that sits above the hotel lobby reception desk. "The Guardian" watches over the hotel like a guardian angel. She also created several of the cylinders in the lobby and one of the pots on the second-floor nicho. Swentzell comes from a family of renowned potters and sculptors. Roxanne Swentzell attended the Institute for American Indian Arts and the Portland Museum Art School and won Best of Sculpture in the Santa Fe Indian Market in 1999.  Link for more information below and link to video.

Hotel Chaco’s main front doors and lobby ceiling oculus are designed by Tammy Garcia, of Santa Clara Pueblo. The front doors are a modern interpretation of the black on black pottery renowned from Santa Clara Pueblo, the image on them is Avanyu, the Tewa water serpent that appears in petroglyphs all over the Southwest and at Chaco Canyon. The Oculus is representative of 3 eagles (swirl images) as the eagle is a sacred bird and she wants the viewer to look skyward. Link to learn more below and link to video.

Ira Lujan (Taos/Ohkay Owingeh Pueblos) created a hand blown glass antler cloud in the lobby as well as three glass poured pieces on the hotel's third floor based on the spiral petroglyph found at Chaco Canyon. The antler is an ancient sacred symbol as is the cloud, in this he combines these two symbols to form a cloud of antlers. Lujan says that glass is the new pottery medium as it is light suspended in time. Link to learn more below and link to video.

Mateo Romero (Cochiti Pueblo) completed paintings featured at the hotel's fourth floor. The paintings are all explanations of Chaco Canyon’s mysteries and how they relate to the elements (rain/earth), sustenance (food/corn) and spirituality (ceremonial architecture) are central to the Native American world view. Romero attended Dartmouth College and studied with acclaimed artists Ben Frank Moss and Varujan Boghosian.  Link to learn more below.

Tony Abeyta has a focal point painting in the Hotel Chaco lobby. Abeyta is a Navajo contemporary artist working in mixed media paintings. He is a graduate of New York University who also holds an honorary doctorate from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and is recognized as a Native treasure by the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture.  His work can be seen at the Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, and is included in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Boston Fine Arts Museum, the Heard Museum in Phoenix,  the New Mexico Fine Arts Museum, the Autry Museum in Los Angeles, and the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis. Link to learn more below.

Tenorio created one of the large pottery pieces featured on the 2nd story nicho. Robert uses traditional designs and shapes in his pottery through his own interpretations of traditions.  His first award was in 1971 from the Heard Museum in Arizona. He now has ribbons enough, he laughingly noted, to “make two quilts!” One of his pieces entered in Indian Market was so intriguing that a new category was made just for it — Prehistoric Pottery —  for which he also received an award.