Large Commissions

Red Chief Blanket 1974 - Bernalillo County Courthouse, commission , 1974

Hand Dyed, Hand Woven Wool Tapestry  
96 x 360 in
76 x 20 cm

In 1974 Nancy worked with the architect Louis McLain with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Mr. McLain wanted to commission a 30-foot Red Chief Blanket tapestry for the Phoenix Hyatt Regency lobby. They also commissioned several other tapestries for the hotel, lounge, conference room and several hotel suites. Seventeen years later the hotel was sold and remodeled. Nancy bought back the Red Chief’s Blanket. Plans for the Bernalillo County Courthouse were still on the drawing table, and construction had not yet begun. The architects were thrilled with the Red Chief’s Blanket tapestry from Phoenix, but there was not a wall large enough to fit the tapestry in their plans. They changed the design of the building by changing the size of a course of windows and added soffits to the exterior of the building to create a space to include the tapestry. The tapestry can be seen from each of four floors in the building. Patterns from the design of the tapestry were incorporated into the bannisters for the stairways and integrated into the letterhead and signage for the building. This tapestry was “woven” into the whole building.

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