A major cultural landmark is preparing to reopen in Marfa, the small Texas town that was transformed into a renowned art destination under the visionary leadership of legendary minimalist artist Donald Judd. While Judd is widely celebrated as one of America's most important minimalist artists, his creative practice extended far beyond sculpture and furniture design to encompass significant architectural work. The artist's former architecture office, housed in a historic two-story brick building in the heart of Marfa, will officially reopen to the public on September 20th, 2025, following an extensive seven-year restoration effort.
Judd relocated from New York City to the remote high desert town of Marfa in the 1970s, where he spent decades establishing large-scale art spaces and undertaking ambitious historic preservation projects. The architecture office occupies a distinctive brick structure that was originally constructed in the early 20th century, around 1915. After acquiring the building in 1990, Judd and his team completely overhauled the space to serve as his working architecture studio. The recent restoration project began in 2018 but faced significant challenges, including a devastating fire in 2021 that forced the team to pause and reassess their approach.
The comprehensive renovation has been led by Texas-based Schaum Architects working in close collaboration with the Judd Foundation, the organization dedicated to preserving and promoting Donald Judd's architectural legacy. Throughout the restoration process, the design team remained faithful to Judd's own fundamental principles: deep respect for original materials and thoughtful adaptation to the building's historical and environmental context. The project successfully integrates modern sustainable technologies, including passive cooling strategies, a rooftop solar array, and advanced insulation methods, while carefully maintaining and celebrating the structure's historic character.
The restored interior spaces now function as gallery areas specifically designed to showcase Judd's extensive body of work, including his innovative plywood and metal furniture pieces, architectural drawings, physical models, and important archival materials. Visitors traveling through Marfa will have the unique opportunity to explore these carefully curated rooms and experience the full depth and scope of Judd's architectural practice within the very spaces where his visionary ideas came to life.
In an exclusive interview ahead of the September 20th reopening, Rainer Judd, President of the Judd Foundation and Donald Judd's daughter, shared insights about the project's significance within her father's broader legacy and its ongoing role in Marfa's evolving cultural narrative. When asked about the spirit of Marfa and how it has evolved since her father's arrival, she explained that the town has a rich small-town history spanning generations, from its origins as a military outpost to its development as a cattle town, through periods of economic ups and downs and demographic changes that reflect the broader story of the American Southwest.
"For Don, Marfa was a place to install his work, a place to be in and care for the land, and to think," Rainer Judd explained. "Inadvertently, it was an opportunity to do something locally that did not go against the nature of the place." She noted that her father was opposed to Marfa becoming either a cattle town museum or simply an art town, and he was particularly against the concept of an artist colony. While Marfa is now widely considered an art destination, this transformation occurred after Donald Judd's time there, creating both opportunities and responsibilities for the Foundation.
Regarding the intersection of Judd's various creative disciplines, Rainer emphasized that art, design, and architecture were individual components of a unified whole for her father, all fundamentally concerned with space. "In his writing on all of these – art, architecture, design – he states that the need to preserve and install his work in spaces that he considered appropriate and the invention of his work, were two primary concerns that joined and both tend toward architecture," she said. While Judd understood that art didn't need to concern itself with function the way architecture and design do, he emphasized that architecture was not art, though it could certainly be artistic and cultural.
The building and its meticulous restoration perfectly illustrate Judd's architectural and artistic vision through his approach to historic preservation. When Judd first acquired the Architecture Office, one of his initial actions was to sandblast the facade to return the building to its original condition, demonstrating his deep consideration for the town's architectural context and the era in which it was built. "He respected original thought, labor, and materials. He was interested in not wasting this," Rainer explained, noting that this philosophy guided both his artistic and architectural practices.
The restoration team faced numerous challenges in bringing the building back to life, particularly given Marfa's harsh desert climate and the damage from the 2021 fire. However, the team was able to preserve and restore many beautiful original details, including an elegant archway on the second floor, the building's pressed tin ceiling, double-hung windows, and the fundamental framing structure. The fire, while devastating, provided an opportunity for the project team to reconsider the building's systems and implement improvements that reflect both modern technology and time-tested techniques used in desert climates for thousands of years.
The restoration incorporates an innovative cooling system that takes advantage of the desert's natural temperature fluctuations, allowing cool night air to flush through the building. This approach exemplifies the project's commitment to environmental sustainability while respecting the building's historic character and the harsh realities of the West Texas climate. The completed restoration ensures that the building can properly protect the installed collection and maintain structural integrity for future generations while serving as an energy-efficient space that honors both its architectural heritage and contemporary environmental standards.
