Marfa — Following a seven-year restoration and rebuilding, Judd Foundation will reopen Donald Judd’s Architecture Office to the public on September 20. The Architecture Office is the first major building project to be completed in Judd Foundation’s long-term restoration plan for its buildings in Texas and will open with a weekend of programs centered on Judd’s architectural work. The Architecture Office is one of 11 Judd-associated buildings in Marfa recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.
Donald Judd (1928 – 1994) was an American artist, designer and critic who moved to Marfa in the 1970s.
The Architecture Office restoration was halted in 2021 by a fire that consumed much of the building’s central interior and roof structure. After a multidisciplinary team saved and shored up what remained, work began again. This final effort incorporates adaptations to the energy consumption and material configuration of the building — including passive cooling and rooftop solar — to improve overall energy performance.
The $3.3 million restoration and reconstruction, planned and designed with Troy Schaum and Rosalyne Shieh, builds upon Judd’s own efforts to return the structure to its original condition following his purchase of it in 1990. The undertaking reflects the core principles of Judd Foundation’s mission to maintain and preserve Judd’s buildings and demonstrates Judd’s approach of thoughtful preservation, carefully orchestrated craftsmanship, and local collaboration.
“This project was guided by Don’s lifelong work in architecture, his thinking and interest in the history of a building,” explains Rainer Judd, president of Judd Foundation. “He knew that the built environment is an embodiment of the past and a benefit to the present. Our buildings are a reflection of his architectural process, which respected labor and recognized the qualities of materials and a building’s original proportions. The Architecture Office has been restored to share the space that Don created, dedicated to thinking about the role of architecture in our lives.”
Built at the turn of the 20th century and originally operated as a boarding house and grocery, the Architecture Office is a key example of Judd’s practice of repurposing existing buildings and restoring historic structures in New York and Texas. The two-story, 5,000-square-foot brick structure was originally known as the Glascock Building.
The Architecture Office will open as part of Judd Foundation’s public guided-visit program, providing access to its working and living spaces as permanently installed by Judd. An extensive collection of furniture by Judd in plywood and metal will be reinstalled throughout the ground-floor office space and second-floor living space. The ground-floor office contains architectural models, building plans, and design prototypes used by Judd. The Architecture Apartment, on the building’s second floor, houses a multiroom living space installed by Judd with paintings by John Chamberlain, furniture by Alvar Aalto, and furniture by Judd. The restoration provides new public program spaces for the foundation and accommodations for visiting researchers.
The Architecture Office is one of several major restoration projects Judd Foundation is planning for its buildings in Texas. Recent and ongoing building restoration projects include the Block and the Winter Garden; the Ranch Office; and Las Casas, a ranch house on Judd’s Ayala de Chinati ranch south of Marfa. It follows the historic restoration of Judd’s building at 101 Spring Street in New York, completed in 2013, which provided the model for the contextual approach, rigorous attention to detail, and commitment to quality employed for this project. Schaum Architects, who have worked on multiple Judd buildings in Marfa, were engaged to realize the project.
“The restoration of the Architecture Office simultaneously embraces challenges of sustainability in the desert climate, the history of Marfa, and Donald Judd’s work,” says Troy Schaum, principal at Schaum Architects. “Through the phases of the work, the building was meticulously restored brick by brick but also reexamined holistically to incorporate Judd’s interventions for the building with practices embedded in Marfa’s historic urban fabric.”
Judd Foundation is grateful for the support of public and private donors to the restoration of the Architecture Office. Major support was provided by the Judd Foundation Board of Directors; The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston; The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; Dudley and Michael Del Balso; Suzanne Deal Booth; and an anonymous donor. Additional support was provided by The Summerlee Foundation, The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund for Historic Interiors of The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the City of Marfa, and E.R. Butler & Co.
The opening of the Architecture Office will include a weekend of programs and celebrations centered around Judd’s architectural practice from Saturday, September 20, to Sunday, September 21. On Saturday, a panel discussion, “Architecture Office Restoration and Adaptive Reuse,” with Peter Stanley (Judd Foundation), Troy Schaum (Schaum Architects, Rice University), and Beatrice Galilee (The World Around), will focus on the restoration of the building to situate Judd’s own adaptations within contemporary architectural practices. On Sunday, a lecture, “Donald Judd and Architecture,” by Julian Rose (Princeton), will review specific projects realized by Judd.
Architecture Office restoration
The first phase of work began in 2018 and focused on the building envelope, using traditional masonry techniques to repair and repoint the brick façade while maintaining the building’s original aesthetic. Leaks and damage to the original windows, most of which had been boarded up, were also addressed. All exterior wood windows and historic wood and copper storefronts were rebuilt by hand; original brass door and window hardware was refinished and reinstalled. Energy efficient glazing was incorporated while maintaining the historic look and operation of the windows and woodwork.
The second phase of work, which began in 2020, addressed the interior spaces, preparing them for the safe reinstallation of artworks and design objects, as well as for visitors and public outreach. Spaces permanently installed by Judd were given extra attention; floors were repaired and stabilized, and window and door treatments were improved to protect the work inside.
Previously, objects had been housed in unconditioned areas with large variations in temperature and humidity. The project team determined that the advanced mechanical systems typically used for museums and preservation were neither feasible nor desirable in this arid remote location.
Instead, the project team researched and specified passive and light mechanical systems to achieve the required interior conditions. The collection will be kept within an acceptable climate range using an innovative outside-air system that senses the desert’s natural daily temperature swings and shifts accordingly. The second-floor installed spaces were also restored to match the conditions in which Donald Judd left them, but with an upgraded kitchen and bathrooms in keeping with the original architecture, and with energy efficient heating, cooling and lighting systems in place.
For the second restoration and rebuilding post-fire, working with Judd’s architectural precept of considering existing structures as complete systems, the project team implemented a number of energy conservation and sustainability practices that assessed the building as a whole, including: integration of insulated low-emissivity glazing systems into historic wood-sash windows, installation of a new steel canopy that matches the historic configuration of the original building canopy to protect the interior installed spaces from the harsh afternoon sun and temperature increases, and implementation of climate-neutral materials, such as recycled denim insulation, increasing energy efficiency by mitigating heat gain and loss.
Architecture Office history
Donald Judd purchased the Glascock Building, located on Highland Avenue in downtown Marfa, in 1990. Built at the turn of the 20th century, the 5,000-square-foot building was originally operated as a store and later housed various commercial businesses. Sited in direct proximity to Judd’s Architecture Studio, the street level of this two-story structure was renovated by Judd for use as his Architecture Office. The Architecture Office contains furniture and design objects by Judd as well as plans and models of his architectural projects in the United States and Europe, including the Basel Bahnhof and his former Swiss residence, Eichholteren. Judd intended for the second floor of the building to function as a living space for guests.
Architecture Office project team
Schaum Architects, project architects
(Houston, Texas)
Troy Schaum, Rosalyne Shieh, Andrea Brennan, Ian Searcy, Tucker Douglas, Ane Gonzalez Lara, Tsvetelina Zdraveva, Ryan Botts, Anneli Rice, Zhiyi Chen, Ekin Erar (formerly SCHAUM/SHIEH)
Alpha Masonry, historic masonry consulting
(Winnipeg, Canada)
Sotirios Kotoulas, Kostas Kotoulas, Antonio Guerreiro
GK Engineers, MEP engineering
(Bellaire, Texas)
Davia Gernand
Higgins Quasebarth & Partners, historic building consulting
(New York, New York)
Cas Stachelberg, Jonathan Taylor
High Desert Woodworks, historic carpentry
(Marfa, Texas)
Jon Antonides
Image Permanence Institute, environmental, preservation, and conservation consulting
(Rochester, New York)
Kelly Krish, Christopher Cameron
KCI Technologies, MEP engineering
(Downers Grove, Illinois)
Nicholas Badke
Method Building Company, general contractors
(Marfa, Texas)
Faith Melgaard, Kyle Melgaard, Jimmy Magliozzi\
RC Concepts, general contractors
(Marfa, Texas)
Juan Martinez, Jose Martinez
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, engineering
(New York, New York)
Nathaniel Smith
TYLin Engineering, engineering
(New York, New York)
Pat Arnett, Jennifer Chan
Transsolar KlimaEngineering, energy engineering
(New York, New York)
Erik Olsen