concepts · updated 2026-07-19
Bridgers & Paxton
confidence: medium volatility: cold
Albuquerque mechanical consulting engineering firm founded 1951 by Frank Bridgers (1922-2005) and Donald Paxton (1912-2007). Engineered the 1956 Solar Building, widely called the world's first solar-heated commercial office building — SAH Archipedia's documented predecessor to Steve Baer's 1971 Corrales house in New Mexico's passive-solar lineage.
Bridgers & Paxton Consulting Engineers was founded in May 1951 in Albuquerque by mechanical engineer Frank Bridgers (1922–2005) — New Mexico’s first independent mechanical consulting engineering firm — with Donald “Don” Paxton (1912–2007) joining months later that year. Their first project was an air-conditioning renovation at Sandia Base for the Atomic Energy Commission.
The Solar Building (1956)
Designed as the firm’s own office headquarters at 213 Truman St. SE, Albuquerque, with architects Stanley & Wright (Francis Stanley, George Wright), built March–August 1956. A south wall angled roughly 30° from vertical held solar collectors (~750–800 sq ft, sources vary) — copper tubing over black-painted aluminum sheeting, sealed behind glass. Circulating water reached up to ~140°F, stored in a 6,000-gallon insulated underground tank giving reserve heat for up to three days of cloud cover; a water-to-water heat pump supplemented when tank temperature dropped too low. The same system enabled radiant-panel cooling. Total cost ~$58,500 (mechanical system ~$15,000).
Widely called the world’s first solar-heated commercial/office building; covered in Life and Popular Mechanics (1956–57). The solar system was abandoned for a conventional boiler after a 1962 building expansion (cheap fuel prices), briefly reactivated after the 1973 oil embargo, then restored and studied 1974–77 under an NSF grant led by Penn State’s Stanley F. Gilman. Listed on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties (1985) and the National Register of Historic Places (1989). Currently vacant.
SAH Archipedia explicitly frames the Solar Building as the predecessor, in New Mexico’s passive-solar architectural lineage, to Steve Baer’s 1971–72 Corrales house — active solar to passive solar — which in turn precedes Mike Reynolds‘s Earthships in Taos.
The firm today
Don Paxton retired in 1975, Frank Bridgers in 1991. The firm now has 130+ employees with offices in Albuquerque (HQ), Colorado Springs, and Phoenix; longtime clients include Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. First LEED project in 2003.