Chinati Artillery Sheds

Donald Judd, an important and influential 20th century American artist, adapted two abandoned artillery sheds to create a holistic art experience. He added full-story glass and aluminum windows and converted the flat roofs to barrel vaults to emphasize the influence the art, desert site, and natural light have on each other. He precisely placed the polished aluminum sculptures to capture and reflect the changing light, landscape, and horizon, and become one with their setting in place and time.

Recognizing the buildings and sculptures are inextricably linked with Judd’s vision for the installation, the foundation wanted to preserve the building, while improving their condition and performance to maintain the complete experience for posterity.

To help the foundation realize their goals, SGH assisted with various projects and studies on the buildings and artwork. We investigated the strength and condition of the existing sheds’ structure and the condition and reliability of the building enclosure, performed water testing to identify leakage paths, instrumented the building with temperature data loggers, conducted thermal analyses to evaluate options for reducing solar heat gain in the Texas desert climate, and created detailed simulations to understand the adverse effects of thermal changes on the polished aluminum artwork.

We presented our recommendations and collaborated with the foundation to choose a rehabilitation plan that balanced performance, art and building preservation, and the human experience with the installation. SGH developed design documents to address water management, materials conservation, and internal climate control.