New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 4 - CULTURAL RESOURCES
Chapter 10 - CULTURAL PROPERTIES AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Part 18 - STATE REGISTER OF CULTURAL PROPERTIES
Section 4.10.18.11 - STANDARDS, SIGNIFICANCE AND INTEGRITY CRITERIA FOR REGISTRATION

(1) National register bulletins. The CPRC uses the national register bulletin series prepared by the national park service as guidance in applying the criteria for state registration. Contact the HPD for assistance.

(2) General standards. Property descriptions and statements of significance on the nomination form must be accurate and prepared in accordance with standards generally accepted by academic historians, architectural historians, archaeologists, ethnologists and others, as appropriate, to the property being nominated.

(3) Boundaries. Boundaries for a district, site, structure, building, place or object shall encompass but shall not exceed the full extent of the significant resources or land area making up the property. The area should be large enough to include all historic features of the property and shall not include buffer zones or acreage not directly contributing to the significance of the property. Districts may include noncontributing resources, such as altered buildings or buildings constructed before or after the period of significance. In situations where historically associated resources were geographically separated from each other during the period of significance or are separated by intervening development and are now separated by large areas lacking eligible resources, a discontiguous district may be defined. The following features may be used to mark the boundaries as they reflect the resources: legally recorded boundary lines; natural topographic features such as ridges, valleys, rivers and forests; man-made features such as fences and stone walls, streets and roads; or areas of new construction or construction outside the period of significance.

(1) Criteria for evaluation. The quality of significance in the history, architecture, archaeology, science, engineering and culture is present in structures, buildings, sites, places, districts or objects that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association; and

(2) Criteria considerations. Ordinarily cemeteries, birthplaces or graves of historical figures, properties owned by religious institutions or used for religious purposes, structures that have been moved from their original locations, reconstructed historic buildings, properties primarily commemorative in nature, and properties that have achieved significance within the past 50 years shall not be considered eligible for the state register. Such properties may qualify if they are integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria or if they fall within the following categories:

(3) Level of significance. A property listed in the state register may be of national, state or local significance. The CPRC shall use the following criteria in determining the level of significance appropriate to the property:

(1) Location is the place where the property was constructed or the place where the event or activity occurred. For the site of historic or cultural events, a property has integrity of location when the location itself, complemented by the setting, may be used to visualize or recall the event.

(2) Design is the combination of elements that create the form, plan, space, structure and style of the property. Design results from the conscious decisions in the conception and planning of a property and may apply to areas as diverse as community planning, engineering, architecture and landscape architecture. Principal aspects of design include organization of space, proportion, scale, technology and ornament.

(3) Setting is the physical environment of the property as distinct from the specific place where the property was built or the event occurred. The physical features that constitute setting may be natural or cultural and may include topographic features, vegetation and relationships of a building to other features and open space.

(4) Materials include the physical elements that were combined or deposited during a particular period of time and in a particular pattern or configuration to form the cultural property. The integrity of materials determines whether or not an authentic property still exists.

(5) Workmanship is the physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture or people during any given period in history or prehistory. Workmanship may be expressed in vernacular methods of construction and plain finishes or in highly sophisticated configurations and ornamental detailing. It may be based on common traditions or innovative period techniques. Examples of workmanship include tooling, carving, painting, graining, turning or joinery.

(6) Feeling is the property's expression of the aesthetic or historic sense of a particular period of time. Although intangible, feeling depends upon the presence of physical characteristics to convey the historic qualities that evoke feeling. Because it is dependent upon perception of each individual, integrity of feeling alone will never be sufficient to support designation.

(7) Association is the direct link between an important historic event or person and the cultural property. If a property has integrity of association, then the property is the place where the event or activity occurred and is sufficiently intact that it can convey that relationship.