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"Then there's the weather here," he continues. "In the course of a day it can be clear, get cloudy and snow and then get sunny and the snow melts. You never know what to expect."
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| The house sits at the foot of the Santa Fe National Forest amid piñons, aspens and cottonwoods. Kilmer, who nearly doubled its size to 6,000 square fee, sought to reorganize the circulation and "maximize the views." He also built a barn for his horses. |
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Eighteen years ago the only thing the actor expected when he drove through Santa Fe on his way to New York and the Juilliard School, where he'd been accepted as a drama student, was a couple of nights' layover in Santa Fe. Three and a half months later he reluctantly drove out of town, beginning a commuter romance between Santa Fe and wherever he happened to be working at the time. Seven years ago he put down official roots by buying twenty-seven acres of prime property in Tesuque (home to Ali MacGraw [see Architectural Digest, July 1997] and Gene Hackman [see Architectural Digest, April 1990], among others). |
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Though the land was spectacular, the house on it wasn't, as Kilmer and then wife, English actress Joanne Whalley, moved into what he describes as "a seventies condominium-looking wreck with glass walls." (Albeit one with a colorful past: The former tenants left bullet holes scattered throughout a bedroom.)There was no dining room, and what is now the living room was a greenhouse with a tin roof, plastic skylights and uneven floors.
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