Oil money that went to the de Menils and to Rothko: free museums, quiet rooms, and a chapel that changed what a museum could be.
Dominique and John de Menil's collection, from the Surrealists to Byzantine icons and African art, in Renzo Piano's first museum (1987), a long grey house in a neighbourhood of grey bungalows.
Fourteen dark paintings Rothko made for an octagonal room, opened in 1971, a year after his death. A place to sit, not to visit.
A campus by Mies van der Rohe, Rafael Moneo and Steven Holl (2020), linked by a tunnel lit by James Turrell.
A stainless-steel parallelogram by Gunnar Birkerts (1972), with no collection, only exhibitions, and free.
Rooms, ruins and curiosities: the city's other museum.
A postman, Jeff McKissack, spent from 1956 to 1979 building a maze of balconies, mosaics and wagon wheels in praise of the orange.
From 1968, John Milkovisch covered his house in flattened beer cans and garlands of ring-pulls that chime in the wind.
A James Turrell skyspace (2012): sit under a square opening in the roof while coloured light changes the sky at sunrise and sunset. Free, booked ahead.
Donald Judd's town in the West Texas desert: fly to El Paso and drive. See Off-Piste.
The Menil at opening → the Twombly Gallery → the Rothko Chapel → lunch → MFAH and Turrell's tunnel → Twilight Epiphany at sunset (booked).