Ayres took drawing lessons at the Art Students League at night and studied painting under the noted teacher and artist Frank Vincent DuMond.
[2] One of their projects was the three-story home of Ethel Draught, at 1215 N. St. Mary's St, now part of the campus of Providence Catholic School.
[3] Early in his solo career in San Antonio, Ayres designed a hotel (1907) later known as the Heimann Building,[4] and now occupied by Avance, a non-profit serving children and families in need.
Many of the firm's works were designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style architecture, which was massively popular throughout San Antonio and the surrounding area.
He was active with other public, commercial buildings, and residences in South Texas towns, such as the 1920 Uvalde home of then-Congressman John Nance Garner,[9] and the 12-story addition to the Hamilton Hotel in Laredo in 1923.
He designed San Antonio's Plaza Hotel (1927),[10] its Federal Reserve Bank Building (1928), and, with his son Robert, its first skyscraper, the thirty-story Smith-Young Tower (1929), "still one of the city's most commanding works.
"[11] His firm helped design the exterior of the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium (1923) and the Administration Building at Randolph Air Force Base (1931), often affectionately referred to as the "Taj Mahal," and remodeled the historic Menger Hotel (1949–53).