New Front Wall at HSFF's El Zaguán

Photographs and Text by HSFF Preservation Specialist Mara Saxer

Those who have strolled down Canyon Road in the last few weeks have likely seen HSFF’s El Zaguán’s facelift in the making. Our front entry received a fresh coat of plaster – some mud, some lime – from Southwest Plastering, and it’s looking great.

Long-time members and Santa Feans may remember that the entire Canyon Road façade was redone in lime plaster about six years ago, which is a more compatible material for adobe — the material used in the construction of El Zaguán — than the more common cement stucco. Lime is breathable to allow moisture to wick out, unlike stucco, so if moisture gets in (which it will, inevitably) it can also get out. It is common for stuccoed adobe buildings to have “structural stucco” because the adobe bricks have been marinating in water that seeps in through cracks, or a failing canale, or a chimney, or, or, or... and have melted away beneath their innocent looking coating. Plus, lime is beautiful, my (perhaps biased) opinion is that our little stretch of Canyon has a soft luminous quality not easily found elsewhere.

We love lime! But it did not solve all of our problems, alas. The stretch of wall that encloses our entry courtyard, where the turquoise gate opens, has long been a tricky section. In a short time, our lime plaster began to crack and fall off on areas next to the gate. We patched it and sprayed a waterproofing coating – somewhat paradoxical, with lime’s breathability, but it was an experiment – and the same thing happened. We put cement over the top of the wall, and that failed just as quickly. Some browsing through the HSFF records of work on the building showed me that this was a trend, as far back as our records go people have been stripping, stuccoing, plastering, patching or otherwise working on this section of wall. It’s a mess. Observation over the last several years has led this preservation specialist to believe that this is because the wall gets weather on both sides, unlike the rest of the building where only one side is exposed to the elements and the other is a moisture and temperature buffering interior space, and also that rain and snow land on the top surface of the wall and can percolate in.

Our solution to this problem? Embrace it as an opportunity. We are opting to leave a mud plaster finish here, no additional coating. This is the most traditional finish for adobe. Yes, it will require some maintenance, as mud plaster requires patching and reapplication every year or two, depending on weather conditions. When that time comes, we hope to invite all of you, our community, to join us in getting our hands dirty. It promises to be a good time.