National Register Listing

Southern Union Gas Company Building

723 Silver Ave. SW, Albuquerque, NM

The Southern Union Gas Company Building is eligible at the local level of significance for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C as an important design by John Gaw Meem--an acknowledged master architect--and as one of the foremost manifestations of early Modernist design in Albuquerque. The building satisfies the three registration requirements for the Public and Institutional Buildings Property Type of the National Register Multiple Property Context, "Buildings Designed by John Gaw Meem." First, it possesses a high degree of architectural integrity as detailed in the description section. Second, it conveys clear associations with Meem's work as a designer by possessing seven of eight characteristics of his modernist institutional buildings: cubic, flat-roofed forms, doors, and windows punched in solid masses, a sensitivity to solar orientation, floor-to-ceiling windows, and overall asymmetric composition with a classical undercurrent in its symmetrical entry facade, and A/B/A window compositions. In addition, its flat roof, solid masses, and gray-cream, unglazed terra cotta exterior walls hint at traditional regional architecture but are executed with crisp lines reflecting modernistic aesthetics. And, third, formal aspects of the design, and documents in the Meem office archives establish Meem's substantial participation in the design. In addition, the Southern Union Gas Company Building, which the company occupied from 1951 to 1976, is the most significant, and arguably the best International Style structure erected in Albuquerque.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2004.