ABSTRACT
On June 5, 1939, Harold L. Ickes, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, spoke at the commemoration ceremonies for the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the University of New Mexico. Ickes had been invited by the UNM president, James Fulton Zimmerman, because of his generosity as purveyor of federal public works projects to the nation in the depths of the great depression. Creating a style of buildings was indeed easier than restructuring the cultural life of the state, but the debate on the national scene over modernism versus regionalism made even this effort problematic. The university had wisely adopted a pueblo style of architecture that Ickes considered indigenous to that region and which distinguishes it from other universities. Ronald Hilton conceded that the pseudo-adobe buildings of the University of New Mexico are striking and not too unconvincing. In architectural style, curriculum, and student body, the university would speak to outsiders of the commitment New Mexico had to the future.
