The first thing you would notice looking at the New Mexico History Museum from a helicopter is its odd footprint. The architects, Conron & Woods of Santa Fe and Dagit-Saylor of Philadelphia, had to design around two existing buildings fronting on Washington Avenue: the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library (formerly the Women's Board of Trade library) and the John Gaw Meem-designed Palace of the Governors meeting room.

"We had to connect the new museum into the Meem room, so there's a door there," said Roy Woods of the Santa Fe firm. "And we had to connect into the old library at two points: at the front and at an entry on the side that was added by architect Bernabe Romero in the mid-1980s."

Because the land slopes at least five feet between Washington and Lincoln avenues, those connections are at different levels, as are the loading dock and emergency exit on the north side of the museum, the main entrance on the west, and a connection to the Palace of the Governors courtyard on the south.

Pilar Cannizzaro at the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division helped the design team with the Washington Avenue segment, which is just 22 feet of street frontage between the two historic buildings. The history museum is taller than the Meem meeting room and the Chávez library; it is set back from their facades in order not to overwhelm them but is distinguished by a taller, more straight-edged massing and by a monumental second-story window.

On Lincoln Avenue, the museum's bulk is moderated by the glassy main entrance, by two steel wall sculptures by Paula Castillo, and by a gradual curve in the facade — which incorporates a long, triangular planting trough and a colonnade effect that echoes that of the neighboring First Interstate Building.

The 96,000-square-foot museum occupies three full stories, with a mezzanine. The narrative of the state's history is presented in a somewhat mazelike arrangement of exhibition spaces. Gallagher & Associates of Bethesda, Maryland, designed the exhibition spaces based on concepts generated by local curators and educators who served as a "content team" for the project.

The areas facing the Palace of the Governors are impressive for their sense of light and openness — you can look out on Santa Fe from the top floor, where a café is planned for the future. There is also a beautiful 210-seat theater and a state-of-the-art storage vault, nearly 8,400 square feet, to hold the precious legacy of artifacts.

The museum walls are made of Nudura, a type of insulating-concrete form. The Nudura blocks have integral polystyrene insulation and vertical channels through which concrete is poured for the finished structure.

The fact that the new museum adjoins the 399-year-old Palace posed special challenges for the architects and the contractor. Steps were taken to prevent damage to the ancient structure, including from construction vibrations during installation of 60-foot-deep pylons to support the museum.

And rather than attempt to quietly separate the new museum from the old Palace, the two are married. Frances Levine, director of the Palace and of the history museum, calls the Palace of the Governors "our most important exhibit." There will be interpretive materials about the Palace inside the new museum, and there is a breezeway between the museum's south face and the back wall of the Palace courtyard buildings.

We will never know what the large, south-facing wall of translucent onyx would look like. That was a part of the original museum design that was nixed in favor of more traditional finishes.