Schaum Architects to Restore Donald Judd's Artillery Sheds at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas

Houston-based Schaum Architects has joined the team restoring the two Artillery Sheds at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas — the buildings that Donald Judd transformed in the 1980s to house his 100 milled-aluminium works.

The firm will serve as design architect on the project, which is set to begin in late 2026, working alongside Chinati Foundation executive director Caitlin Murray, director of preservation and planning Stephen Martin, head of conservation Bogna Skwara, and a team of specialists, according to Dezeen.

The sheds date to the 1930s, when they were built as military structures. Judd adapted them between 1980 and 1986, adding Quonset-hut-style roofs and replacing the original garage doors with the quartered windows that define the buildings today. Inside sit his "100 untitled works in mill aluminum," created between 1982 and 1986 — a cornerstone of the collection the artist established in the high desert of west Texas.

The renovation's goal is to keep the buildings true to Judd's vision while discreetly updating them. Troy Schaum, founder of Schaum Architects, described the studio's approach as "editing around the edges" — small, precise interventions rather than wholesale change.

The most visible structural work involves installing kicker braces around the edges of the metal roof. These will create properly sized gutters for the first time and better secure the roof against wind. Water runoff from the new gutter system will feed a restored landscape designed by Houston-based Dept LLC with local landscape designer Jim Martinez, whose work will also address parts of the site still degraded from its former military use and add an ADA-compliant walking path.

Inside, the challenge is subtler. The sheds currently run without any mechanical systems, and the team aims to keep the buildings' quiet, low-carbon operation intact. The plan calls for low-energy, solar-powered filtration systems installed through existing concrete expansion joints — the gaps left between pours of concrete to allow for natural movement — to circulate air. Re-treated and replaced glass on the facade will create positive pressure to exclude dust. The system is designed so visitors never see or hear it.

The Chinati Foundation's broader project will carefully repair and weatherproof the Judd-modified buildings, according to The Art Newspaper. The Getty Conservation Institute has previously noted the significance of the 100 aluminium works, which have occupied the sheds for four decades.

What makes the project notable is the tension at its centre: Judd designed those buildings so the art, the architecture and the harsh landscape would read as a single, indivisible thing. Every intervention — a gutter, a filter, a path — has to honour that without disturbing it. Schaum's "editing around the edges" framing suggests the team knows the line it is walking.

For the thousands who visit Marfa each year, the result should be the same sheds, the same light, the same aluminium catching the same Texas sun — only drier, steadier and standing for longer.