Albuquerque's Downtown Museums
The Museum of Natural History, with its sharp-edged, geometric architecture and the ubiquitous tile roofing of buildings in the Southwest, houses many exhibits dedicated to the geological development of New Mexico's deserts and mountains. Barely visible in the background, just to the left of the building and a street sign is Sandia Peak, which at 10,678 feet rises steeply and suddenly from greater Albuquerque's high desert floor (5,000 feet above sea level), yet is still dwarfed by many other peaks in the southern Rocky Mountain Range, many of which reach 12,000-13,000 feet.
The other side of the New Mexico Natural History Museum showcases more of its stark architecture, complete with a dome and observatory. The kid-friendly museum uses cutting edge video technology to cover 38 million years of geological history of the region.
The Explora Science Center and Children's Museum has interactive programs, exhibits, and demonstrations designed to appeal to the imagination and creativity of children, much like San Diego's own Ruben H. Fleet Science Center. In addition to the typical Southwestern architecture of most of its building of importance, much of the region's landscaping is sparse, featuring hardy plants or even Xeroscape ("rock gardens").
Two views of the full-scale missile outside the entrance to the National Atomic Museum, which chronicles the importance of New Mexico's contribution to the development of atomic weapons and energy. It was the nearby town of Los Alamos that served as a "secret" location for the early development and military testing of its fledgling atomic weaponry in 1943 as part of what was called "The Manhattan Project." The first atomic bomb was detonated (exploded) at the Trinity Site in southern New Mexico (now part of the present-day White Sands National Monument) on July 16, 1945.
The entrance to the Albuquerque Museum of Art. Click here to see samples of sculptures outside the museum (photography of exhibits indoors is prohibited).
Statue of "Shepherder Lincoln Fox" outside the entrance to the Albuquerque Museum of Art. Click here to see samples of more sculptures outside the Albuquerque Museum of Art.
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