[2][3] Gaastra was a major player in the Spanish Pueblo Revival architectural style in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Tjalke Charles Gaastra was born in 1879, and immigrated to the mid-western United States with his family.
In 1911, Gaastra received his architecture license from the state of Illinois, and worked in Chicago for seven years designing schools.
Gaastra was architect on the Gildersleeve home built for David Chavez in 1928, property originally owned by painter/photographer, Carlos Vierra.
[6] In 1923, T. Charles Gaastra, who had come to Santa Fe in 1918 and designed buildings using the emergent Santa Fe style, had moved his practice to the larger, more promising Albuquerque[7] which left architects John Gaw Meem and Cassius McCormick in demand.