At the corner of Highland Avenue in Marfa, Texas, a two-story brick structure with a recessed façade once known as the Glascock Building has silently witnessed the town’s evolution for more than a century. Built in 1907 as a boarding house and grocery, it later became Donald Judd’s Architecture Office after the late polymath artist purchased it in 1990. Within those walls, he sketched, planned, and debated projects such as the Peter Merian Haus and Eichholteren in Switzerland that carried his practice from sculpture to architecture until his untimely death four years later.
In the years that followed, the brick facade degraded considerably and its street-facing windows were boarded up due to structural instability. This fall, after a meticulous seven-year restoration by Schaum Architects, the building reopened as a vital anchor in both Marfa’s civic fabric and the Judd Foundation’s long-term mission to preserve its founder’s legacy. It is one of eleven Judd-associated buildings in Marfa listed on the National Register of Historic Places and marks the first major project under the Foundation’s long-term plan for its Texas properties, following the model established by the 2013 restoration of his building at 101 Spring Street in SoHo, New York.
Donald Judd in Marfa, Texas. 1993.
Photo: © Laura Wilson. Courtesy Judd Foundation.
Work began in 2018 and was nearing completion when disaster struck. In 2021, a fire consumed much of the building’s central interior and roof, halting progress and forcing the team to rebuild from the remains. The renewed structure emerged with the same brick-by-brick craftsmanship Judd prized, now reinforced by discreet energy systems designed to endure the extremes of the high-desert climate. Passive cooling draws on Marfa’s nightly temperature swings, recycled denim insulation tempers the desert heat, and a rooftop solar array offsets annual energy use. The $3.3 million effort drew together local builders and international specialists, from master carpenters in Marfa to masonry experts from Canada.
For Rainer Judd, president of the Judd Foundation, the restoration extends a project her father began when he first sandblasted the façade more than three decades ago. “Aligned with his preservation ethos, we have continued this work of restoring the building’s original details with respect for the intrinsic qualities of the historic architecture, and adapting the interior functions to operate efficiently,” she tells Galerie. “This is done with minimum interruption to the integrity of the building and with prioritization of Don’s ideas.”
Architecture Office, Judd Foundation, Marfa, Texas.
Photo: Matthew Millman © Judd Foundation
Architecture Office, Judd Foundation, Marfa, Texas.
Photo: Matthew Millman © Judd Foundation
The ground floor recreates Judd’s original office. Blueprints, architectural models, and design prototypes are arrayed across his own clean-lined tables, fabricated in plywood and metal, their exacting geometries visible through street-level windows. On the second floor, known as the Architecture Apartment, paintings by John Chamberlain hang alongside Alvar Aalto armchairs and more Judd furniture exactly as he installed them. The restoration provides public program spaces for the Foundation and accommodations for visiting researchers. “The installation of Don’s work and the spaces surrounding his work extends beyond the buildings we maintain today,” Rainer says. “The Architecture Office subtly introduces the considerations that were the driving force for his architecture.”
Its location, directly opposite the post office, underpins its role within Marfa’s fabric. “As Don said, it is a structure of its time, of the style of the American Southwest at the turn of the century, and as such, a part of Marfa’s shared history,” continues Rainer, who hopes visitors will see it as both an architectural installation and a civic landmark. “This is as important to the experience of the building—just as much as Don’s ideas concerning architecture, preservation, and restoration.”
Second Floor, Architecture Office, Judd Foundation, Marfa, Texas.
Photo: Matthew Millman © Judd Foundation. John Chamberlain Art © Fairweather &
Fairweather LTD / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Second Floor, Architecture Office, Judd Foundation, Marfa, Texas.
Photo: Matthew Millman © Judd Foundation. John Chamberlain Art © Fairweather &
Fairweather LTD / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
For architect Troy Schaum, the project demanded discipline and patience. “There are many small functional items that we may have thought could be ‘improved’ in the apartment spaces on the second floor,” he recalls. “In the end, we accommodated a straightforward design resolution in keeping with Judd’s original occupation of the building.” That ethos—of waiting, observing, and intervening only when essential—was echoed by his former partner, Rosalyne Shieh, now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: “One of [Judd’s] principles for architecture was to first ‘do nothing for a few days and think about it’ before you act. The whole team really adopted this ethos. The buildings and landscapes have their own stories, and we work hard not to compromise them.”
Second Floor, Architecture Office, Judd Foundation, Marfa, Texas.
Photo: Matthew Millman © Judd Foundation. John Chamberlain Art © Fairweather &
Fairweather LTD / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
That philosophy extended to the building’s infrastructure, where the team sought subtle ways to make the century-old structure more responsive to its environment. Schaum’s team studied weather patterns and future climate projections to inform decisions about glass, insulation, and ventilation without altering the building’s character. “The building has taught us to consider a holistic understanding of place,” he says. “We’ve learned that strategically not doing something can be more demanding than designing something new. If we are successful, our hands as designers will leave little trace.”
The Architecture Office joins a constellation of Judd Foundation properties in Marfa, from the Block to Las Casas, all carefully preserved as part of the Foundation’s mandate to safeguard Judd’s permanently installed work. With its reopening, visitors can again step inside the rooms where Judd developed his ideas and lived among the furniture, art, and objects that defined his vision. “I hope that people experiencing the space in person can discover their own interests—of place, time, history, design, architecture—and their meaning in their own lives and professions,” Rainer muses. “Don believed that meaning, just like space, is made.”
Architecture Office, Judd Foundation, Marfa, Texas.
Photo: Matthew Millman © Judd Foundation.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Late Fall Issue under the headline “Office Return.” Subscribe to the magazine.