Architecture Research Office Completes Houston’s Rothko Chapel Restoration

Commissioned by Dominique and John de Menil, and opened in 1971, Houston’s Rothko Chapel houses 14 paintings by abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. During the chapel’s development, Rothko proposed that the octagonal structure, designed by architect Philip Johnson (and then Howard Barnstone and Eugene Aubry after Johnson quit), feature a skylight. Rothko died before the building was complete and, to protect his work from the Texas …

27 Sarcophagi Discovered South of Cairo

Found in the mass burial ground known as Saqqara, 27 unopened 2,500-year-old sarcophagi tease the possibility of many more. They were found in shafts as deep as 30 feet below surface level in two plots—13 in one and 14 in the other. Largely preserved and seemingly unopened since buried, they offer in-depth looks at the art used to adorn the dead and the methods of …