Herbert Bayer was the original architect of The Diamond A Ranch (formerly known as the Gray Ranch) and incorporated salvaged architectural elements. Peter Pennoyer Architects worked with Thomas Jayne on the restoration.

An unexpected oasis of poplar trees and orchards in the foothills of the Capitan Mountains, Diamond A Ranch is a 120,000 acre-property in central New Mexico. A large and stylistically diverse compound, the ranch included a territorial style main house and cottage, an adobe building that had once served as a way station, an indoor pool, a modernist chapel designed by Herbert Bayer and a freestanding structure housing storage as well as a Jacobean library with historic paneling and mantel, none of which were tied together in coherently. In restoring and renovating the complex, Peter Pennoyer Architects layered styles, weaving a narrative of local, historical architecture, and introduced a new stone-flagged patio lined by a traditional New Mexican portale to knit the various buildings together. In addition to restoring the Jacobean library, Peter Pennoyer Architects added a new connecting bar with studded leather panels and rebuilt the pool pavilion in the Greek Revival style. Thomas Jayne’s decoration adds another layer of texture and historical vernacular to the interiors. The landscape architecture firm of Quennell Rothschild used traditional irrigation channels to separate the domestic landscape of the lawn and house gardens from the ranch’s fields, pastures, and orchards.

In 1990, The Nature Conservancy purchased the ranch and, in 1993, transferred it to the newly formed Animas Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting the natural values of the Diamond A Ranch while maintaining the cultural and economic heritage of the boot heel country of New Mexico.