Estufa

The Estufa is a historic building on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, built in 1907 and 1908 by a local fraternity. Since 1915 it has served as the main meeting room for the university's Pi Kappa Alpha chapter. The structure is an early and significant example of the Pueblo Revival style in New Mexico, an architectural movement promoted by the university's president at the time, William G. Tight. Its design is modeled on a kiva, a traditional ceremonial gathering place of the Pueblo Indians, which gives the building its distinctive name.

Architecturally, the Estufa stands out for its elliptical shape and its massive adobe walls, about 14 inches thick. Inside is a single windowless room with seating along the walls, which was originally entered via an exterior staircase and a trap door in the roof. Today access is through a conventional door. Despite the prevalence of the Pueblo style on campus, the Estufa is one of only two buildings actually constructed of adobe. Over the decades the structure survived numerous incidents, including fires, a gas explosion, and threats from road construction projects, before being added to the state and national historic registers in 1988.

Because it serves as the private meeting place of a fraternity, the building is not open to visitors or the general public. The history of the Estufa is closely tied to the tradition of Greek life at the university and is shaped by anecdotes about pranks and rivalries between different fraternities. As a piece of cultural heritage and an architectural one-of-a-kind on campus, it symbolizes the link between the region's Indigenous building traditions and the academic history of Albuquerque.