Casa La Vega, 1801 Camino De La Cruz Blanca, Santa Fe, NM – SOLD

About the property

Casa La Vega, at 1801 Camino de la Cruz Blanca, was designed and built by Satzinger Design in 2009 and was the architect’s own residence, which is the most useful single fact about any house. It sits on 2.33 acres behind the gate at Ponderosa Ridge, on the upper east side, with panoramic views.

The main house is 3,091 square feet with four bedrooms and four baths, and a detached studio and office adds 699, for 3,790 square feet in total. There is a three car garage.

The Webster Estates team represented the seller in 2016.

The house

The kitchen, dining, and living rooms run open, which is how the house is meant to be used, and the fireplaces are placed through the principal rooms. The house was built to be energy efficient from the ground up rather than retrofitted, and the evaporative cooling in the principal bedroom and living room is sized to the rooms it serves.

The detached studio is a genuine second building: a one bedroom space that works as an office, a studio, or independent guest quarters, at a remove from the main house. Portals and patios are landscaped and private, and the parcel carries further development and expansion opportunities, which on a gated upper east side lot is not a small thing.

The neighborhood

Ponderosa Ridge is the gated enclave above St. John’s College and Museum Hill, with the Santa Fe National Forest beyond its boundary, and it is one of the rarely available addresses on the upper east side. There is an annual association fee. Our Upper Eastside neighborhood guide covers the area and the Upper Eastside market archive collects our work there.

We also sold 1862 Camino Cruz Blanca, the Tierra Concepts house inside the same subdivision, and the same architect’s later house, Casa Cielo on Brownell Howland, which is worth reading alongside this one. For the style, see our guide to contemporary adobe homes.

The schools are Atalaya Elementary, Capshaw Middle, and Santa Fe High.

About the transaction

We represented the seller at Casa La Vega. Seven weeks to contract, and it closed within two percent of the asking price. An architect selling his own house is an unusual listing, because the seller knows more about the building than any buyer ever will and has opinions about how it should be presented. The work is getting that knowledge onto the page without letting it become a lecture.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Who designed Casa La Vega? A: Satzinger Design, in 2009. It was built as the architect’s own residence.

Q: How large is the property? A: 3,091 square feet in the main house plus a detached 699 square foot studio and office, 3,790 square feet in total, with four bedrooms and four baths on 2.33 acres.

Q: Is there a separate studio? A: Yes, a detached one bedroom studio and office that works as guest quarters, a workspace, or both.

Q: Which side did Webster Estates represent? A: We represented the seller.

Q: Where is it? A: In Ponderosa Ridge, the gated enclave on the upper east side of Santa Fe above St. John’s College and Museum Hill.

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The Webster Estates Team handled this transaction. Chris Webster, Patti Webster, Christopher Webster III, and Paisley Mason Webster, Associate Brokers at Sotheby’s International Realty, operating from 54½ Lincoln Avenue on The Plaza since 1976.