Kicks Off Phase 2: Rothko Chapel Campus

In Houston, By Cynthia Lescalleet (for Ev Konut Proje), Campus continuity and new construction are both ahead in the next round of enhancements and expansion at the Montrose-area campus of Rothko Chapel, a spiritual, cultural and human rights institution that attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year from around the world.

Phase 2 of the organization’s 2017 master plan, which broke ground April 17, includes a new meditation garden next to neighboring Menil Park, a new 6,600 –square-foot building for adminstration and archives, a 3,800-square-foot program center and guest house. A new plaza between the welcome center and new buildings further connects the campus.

The assemblage of indoor and outdoor multi-use spaces will further enable programming, education and community gatherings as well as contemplative space at the cultural landmark.

“The Chapel has never had the room that we need to fulfill our dual mission,” said David Leslie, Rothko’s executive director in press materials about the work start. The project “is not only about creating spaces that enable us to welcome more visitors, but also facilitating more enriching experiences of the art, deeper contemplation, and the social justice-focused community engagement embedded in our founders’ vision, which brings people together in dialogue and reflection across the many boundaries that separate us.”

Rendering of Phase 2 of the Rothko’s 2017 master plan, which broke ground April 17, includes a new meditation garden next to neighboring Menil Park, a new 6,600 –SF building for adminstration and archives, a 3,800-SF program center and guest house. A new plaza between the welcome center and new buildings further connects the campus. Image: Architecture Research Office

To accommodate the new buildings ahead, an existing two-story cottage on the work site was moved 100 feet east earlier this year. Its new use will be as dedicated housing for chapel speakers and research fellows.

The multi-year, multi-step project is funded by Rothko Chapel’s ongoing $42 million Opening Spaces Campaign, which began in 2016 as the chapel’s 50th anniversary in 2021 approached.

Phase 1 of the 2017 master plan occurred 2019-2021. It included a complete restoration of the venerable chapel and its art-illuminating skylight, landscaping to soften the transition from chapel grounds to nearby buildings and to further the contemplative space available to visitors, infrastructure and drainage improvements, and the Suzanne Deal Booth Welcome Center. The latter, at the north end of campus, is adjacent to most of Phase 2’s elements.

Previous reconfiguring of the campus improved through-views between the new welcome center, chapel, and plaza with reflecting pool, from which rises “Broken Obelesk,” Barnett Newman’s 1967 sculpture dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By design, the completed project will gather Rothko’s more active operations on the north side of its campus and its chapel-centered contemplative elements, extended by the Kathleen and Chuck Mullenweg Meditation Garden, on the south side.

The project team includes Architecture Research Office of New York, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects and Linbeck Group general contractors.

Phase II construction is itself phased, with the administrative building and garden up first. The 3,800-square-foot program center, guest house and plaza will follow, with total project completion slated for 2026.

Rothko Chapel was founded by Houston philanthropists and modernists John and Dominique de Menil in 1971 as an ecumenical center and contemplative space to display 14 paintings by Mark Rothko, an abstract expressionist painter. It serves as a destination, setting and hub for spiritual, cultural and philosopical dialogue.

Rothko Chapel is located west of Montrose Boulevard and north of Richmond Avenue near the heart of Houston.