It was a long-vacant home in a historic district where finishes decompensated to touch and wood elements splintered to dust - a destination for a tear-down, by most standards. Thanks to a client committed to the painstaking process of regenerating the site, weathering losses of the pandemic, and contingencies of an abandoned structure, the project is now a lesson in allegiance to place.

In 1922, the home's original architect, Otto Thorman, instilled the design with imperatives of the desert as well as sensibilities and construction details of John Gaw Meem, for whom he apprenticed. Owing to this context and training, the parti is a Pueblo, the courtyard, defined by perimeter buildings, with restrained territorial detailing. The third floor is a sleeping porch and source of convection throughout the house. The restoration reinstates these functions essential to passive energy and natural light, so that climate and architectural lineage are once again working together.

At many scales, the work required a story be discerned and pieced back together, relying on rigorous research and collaborations with artisans. Sensuous interior detailing such as sculpted plaster-on-lath was replaced, and encaustic tile gingerly removed and put back into position after repairs. Vigas, and tongue and groove ceiling, which had been concealed during a 1945 modernization, were daylit and refinished to Thorman's original paint palette.

Loyal to the project mission, deteriorating windows were made operable again, reconstructed with their original glass panes, a level of work rarely pursued in El Paso. Exterior stucco was replaced and finished with mineral coating, reestablishing a breathable, light absorbing surface. These tasks and more used century-old construction traditions to reconnect the Federal House to El Paso's seasons, the city, and its neighborhood.