The end was in sight for the restoration of Donald Judd’s Architecture Office in downtown Marfa, Texas, when disaster struck: Just after midnight on June 4, 2021, a fire broke out, partially gutting the two-story mixed-use building that the famed artist and designer purchased in 1990 to use as an office space. The Architecture Office is one of 11 buildings affiliated with Judd that are part of the National Register–listed Central Marfa Historic District.

Insurance inspectors never determined the cause of the fire. No one was injured, and Judd’s original furniture designs and architectural drawings remained unharmed in off-site storage. The redbrick exterior, which crews had stabilized and repointed in 2019, stayed intact. “That work was probably the savior of the structure itself,” says Peter Stanley, director of operations and preservation in Marfa for Judd Foundation, the nonprofit dedicated to preserving Judd’s properties and archives and sharing his legacy.

But inside was a different story. For round two of the restoration, crews shored up what remained, reconstructed interior walls, and rebuilt the pressed tin ceiling. The project’s main contractor, Marfa-based Method Building Company, sourced reclaimed heart pine to reconstruct the flooring. Prior to the fire, most of the double-hung wood-sash windows had been re-created, and those that burned had to be remade and reinstalled once again. The project team—led by Stanley, Schaum Architects, and engineering firm TYLin—layered recycled denim insulation into walls, added solar panels to the roof, and installed passive heating and cooling systems.