One of my favorite Marfa buildings is the Brite Building, home of Marfa National Bank and of the Ayn Foundation. The building was designed in 1926 by L.G. Knipe, a well-known Phoenix and Los Angeles architect who began his professional career as a structural engineer. He was recruited to Marfa by Luke Brite, rancher and philanthropist, and is said to have died there.
Among his many designs are several buildings in the campus of what is now Arizona State University in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix. In California, his most famous house is a gem, the Rancho Sombra del Roble (Ranch in the Shade of the Oak), built for the oil pioneer W.W. Orcutt, who, among other things, discovered the fossils in the Brea tar pits. The house and gardens is now the Orcutt Ranch Horticultural Center and is owned by the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department.
