Altamont in Albuquerque, NM

Altamont sits in Albuquerque's Northeast Heights, south of Montgomery Boulevard NE between San Mateo and Louisiana Boulevards. Fred Mossman and Edward Gladden built it in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the first and largest of the four neighborhoods their firm developed on the city's northeast side. Winding, tree-lined streets set the pattern the later ones followed. Houses are brick or brick-and-stucco with pitched roofs, hardwood floors and long, open floor plans on big lots. No homeowners association governs the neighborhood.

Mossman-Gladden was active in Albuquerque from the late 1940s into the early 1980s, working almost entirely inside the rectangle formed by Candelaria Road NE, San Antonio Drive NE, San Mateo Boulevard NE and Wyoming Boulevard NE. Altamont was the opening act. Stardust Skies went up east across Louisiana Boulevard in the late 1960s, Highlands North followed in the 1970s, and Bear Canyon closed the run in the early 1980s.

The firm aimed at professionals, scientists and military officers, and priced above much of its competition. Plans ran horizontal and open, with indoor-outdoor rooms; perimeter heating turns up in many of the houses.

Montgomery Park, at Comanche Road and San Mateo, loops a level eight-tenths-of-a-mile path around ball fields and a playground and shares its grounds with a public pool, the Palo Duro Senior Center and the Erna Fergusson Library. Winrock Town Center and Coronado Center, both near Louisiana Boulevard and Interstate 40, handle the shopping; Winrock has been rebuilt as a mixed-use district with restaurants, a cinema, offices and an outdoor amphitheater. Bus routes run through the area, and some errands are walkable.