Architecture Week has a detailed examination of the Architecture School of the University of New Mexico, designed by the famed Antoine Predock.
The building faces Central Avenue, aka Route 66, and Predock has said in other interviews that he is inspired by the Mother Road and the Southwest in general.
He told the Dallas Morning News in 2005:
“Route 66 was emblematic of the true Wild West, when land was a commodity and buildings were PR and a car was your friend. … A similar kind of commercial dance occurred along the Silk Road, and for strikingly similar reasons.”