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Donald Judd's restored Architecture Office to reopen in September 2025 after devastating fire

2024-07-11T17:37:00-04:00

The Judd Foundation has announced progress on restoring Donald Judd's fire-damaged Architecture Office project in Marfa, Texas: The restoration will now make the building ready for public use by September 20, 2025. It continues the pre-fire work that began in 2019. The final construction phase will go on through the end of this year, followed by a reinstallation of the building’s art collection next summer.

Troy Schaum, the principal of SCHAUM/SHIEH (who is leading the restoration project team), shared: “Restoration of the Architecture Office simultaneously embraces challenges of sustainability in the desert climate, the history of Marfa, and Donald Judd’s work. 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.”

Image: Matthew Millman, courtesy Judd Foundation

Image: Matthew Millman, courtesy Judd Foundati...

Kim Kardashian sued by Donald Judd Foundation over false ownership claims

2024-03-28T12:28:00-04:00

Kim Kardashian's name is in the design news cycle once again after the Donald Judd Foundation filed suit recently against her company SKKN BY KIM in which it claims she falsely stated furnishings made by a company called Clements Design were the original works of the artist, who died in 1994.

The New York Times and TMZ are reporting on the lawsuit this week, which stems from a YouTube video tour of the makeup company's California offices that was uploaded in 2022.

The suit claims Kardashian unwittingly made damaging comments that could mislead consumers into believing the celebrity skincare mogul was endorsing the Judd Foundation (she and her ex-husband are, after all, both outspoken proponents of Judd and other minimalist icons like James Turrell).

The Foundation said they expressly forbid the use of their designs for marketing purposes. Kim’s team took down the two-year-old video and claims they contacted them contritely before negotiations broke down and the suit was filed. Cleme...

The Judd Foundation's 101 Spring Street building is among the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation's first Climate Initiative grant recipients

2021-08-04T13:10:00-04:00

The Judd Foundation is getting a boost thanks to a first-of-its-kind grant from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s new Climate Initiative that will help the 25-year-old institution achieve its ambitious sustainable conservation goals over the next decade.

The foundation, located in the historic 101 Spring Street building, will put the grant money toward commissioning a study of its New York office’s energy use and mechanical systems. The Judd Foundation has been committed to maintaining both it and the organization’s Marfa campus at a great cost since the artist’s death in 1994 at age 65.

Donald Judd moved to the cast-iron building in 1968 as a budding minimalist sculptor and helped marshall in the image of SoHo as an arts district comparable to Montmartre or London’s Square Mile. Judd eventually came to disdain the commercialism created in the neighborhood created by the influx of the professionalized art world, which had begun its second wave transformation into a shopping cent...

Fire severely damages Donald Judd's Architecture Office in Marfa

2021-06-07T18:01:00-04:00

Over the weekend a fire broke out at 102 North Highland Avenue in Marfa, Texas, the two-story brick building best known as the Architecture Office of Donald Judd. According to an Instagram post by the Judd Foundation, the interior of the building, which was undergoing an extensive three-year restoration, was severely damaged. No one was injured during the incident. As of now, the cause of the fire is unknown.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Judd Foundation (@juddfoundation)

Originally built in 1907, Donald Judd purchased the building, known as the Glascock Building, in 1990, and renovated its street-level storefront into an office for his architectural practice. The space was home to numerous furnishings and objects designed by the artist, along with a number of plans and models of Judd’s architectural projects. In 2018, the building was closed for renovations led by Houston and New York-based architecture firm Schaum/Shieh as part of the Judd Founda...

Editor's Picks #318

2013-06-05T01:58:00-04:00

Evan Chakroff penned Art Basel comes to Hong Kong a report wherein Mr. Chakroff analyzed "During the yearly art fair in Basel, Switzerland, the city is activated and reconfigured, and art is brought to the forefront of civic discourse. What, if any, impact could the fair have on daily life in a city of 7 million? How would this art world mega-event translate to the Hong Kong context?"...

News
Orhan Ayyüce drew our attention to #occupygezi in Istanbul where mass protests and battles are still raging over the government plans to build a "Shopping Mall” on the site of an historic civic park.

Parad0xx86 shared "I was in Besiktas and Taksim today. Taksim is like a total war zone with windows smashed, cars turned upside down, beer cans all over the streets..All the buildings have anti-Tayyip graffitis. There are thousands of people in Taksim right now and they aren't going anywhere". mantaray pointed out "that NPR interviewed protesters today, and one of them turned out to be an a...

Donald Judd’s SoHo Loft Opens After $23 Million Makeover

2013-05-31T12:05:00-04:00

Donald Judd bought 101 Spring Street, an 1870 cast-iron building, in 1968 for $68,000. He stripped the dilapidated building down to its plaster walls and wood floors, illegally removing distractions like fire sprinklers. Then Judd (1928-1994) spent decades turning the spaces into a showcase for his art and a place to rest his head on a bed made of wood planks. It’s carefully related to the colored tubes by Dan Flavin that march across the room, echoing the rhythm of a gorgeous row of windows.