Just west of the Rothko Chapel in Montrose, there are two gray bungalows with white trim up for grabs. They’re not for sale, per se — not yet anyway. Though David Leslie, executive director of Rothko Chapel, admits that both structures have already generated significant interest.

He prefers not to elaborate on the future of those bungalows. They currently house the Rothko Chapel’s staff and offices. Their future home, an administration and archives building on the north side of Sul Ross, hasn’t been built yet.

It’s one part of the $32 million Opening Spaces capital campaign and master plan to develop a north campus which will eventually include a program center, energy facilities, landscape and drainage infrastructure and a guest house for artists or scholars-in-residence. The Welcome House, another new addition, is complete and open for business. As is the recently restored Chapel, now enhanced by a re-imagined skylight, lighting design and entryway. OUR BIGGEST SALE! 6 MONTHS FOR 99¢: Unlimited Digital Access ACT NOW

The fate of those two gray bungalows is less certain. All an interested party would have to do, Leslie explains, is split each one in half and haul them off.

An expensive and time-consuming undertaking, though one it wouldn’t be the first time artists, or an organization, have moved mountains to claim a piece of Rothko Chapel.

Shortly before the Chapel closed in March 2019 for renovation, guild member Carlos Silva attended a three-day symposium about climate change on campus.

“I felt very energized and inspired and my gears kind of started turning when I realized the Chapel doors had been taken down,” he says. “I was always drawn to the doors. They were these massive, black and heavy steel doors that were almost vault-like with a metaphysical quality. I thought, ‘How many millions of people have passed through these doors, grabbed these brass handles and exchanged energy through this sacred space?’” A 3D model by Kader Models shows expanded north campus for Rothko Chapel in Houston on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. The Rothko Chapel's $30 million capital project pays tribute to the first 50 years with a new, North-facing campus and green space expansion.

A 3D model by Kader Models shows expanded north campus for Rothko Chapel in Houston on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. The Rothko Chapel's $30 million capital project pays tribute to the first 50 years with a new, North-facing campus and green space expansion. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

He pitched an idea to Leslie: A site installation reinforcing the doors with a steel platform surrounded by a solid, black and matte frame.

“They would look like a void, a negative space put out in a natural setting so they’re blocking a view or blocking a perspective,” Silva explains. “It’s reminiscent of the effect the chapel has on people, where they sit and restart their perspective. Those doors deserve to continue their life beyond the 48 years of guarding the Chapel.”

Silva, who works for a machine shop in North Houston, suggests they could have wound up in a scrap yard had he not rescued them. Four friends helped him lug the 600-pound doors from storage inside the bungalows.

“They’re historic,” he says. “They carry a weight and carry an energy.”

Artist Geraldina Interiano Wise got a call that the Chapel’s baffle was coming down with just a few minutes notice.

“When (Mark) Rothko designed the Chapel on a napkin he had never visited Texas and never understood the sun in Texas,” she shares. “That sun started to decay his paintings, and the baffles were to mitigate very low technology glass at the time.”

Wise and former Glassell School of Art classmate John Cryer III share space at Sawyer Studios.

“We studied the baffle for a period of time and how to manipulate them,” Cryer adds. “For 22 years they were part of protecting art in the Rothko (Chapel) and Texas sun was the reason those baffles exist. So we came up with ‘Texas Light Dancers,’ an abstract interpretation of a dancer. They express the movement and dynamics of light, and represent their original purpose.” The Welcome House for the Rothko Chapel in Houston on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. The Rothko Chapel's $30 million capital project pays tribute to the first 50 years with a new, North-facing campus and green space expansion.

The Welcome House for the Rothko Chapel in Houston on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. The Rothko Chapel's $30 million capital project pays tribute to the first 50 years with a new, North-facing campus and green space expansion. Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Wise and Cryer’s first sculpture is named “Misty” in homage to Misty Copeland, American Ballet Theatre’s first-ever African-American female principal dancer. They hope to create one inspired by Houston Ballet’s Karina González next.

“We want a cadre of these ‘Texas Light Dancers,’ enough to create a ballet surrounding the exterior of the Rothko Chapel,” Wise says.

She and Cryer have time. Leslie has raised $20 million of Opening Spaces capital campaign and wants 75-percent cash-in-hand before starting construction on future projects, including new garden spaces, trees and landscaping.

Until then there are plenty of ways to support Rothko Chapel. Saturday’s Illumination Gala at the Post Oak Hotel at Uptown benefits the non-profit organization’s operating budget. The two gray and white bungalows will need a new home soon. Previous bungalows have been dismantled — but not demolished — and donated to Preservation Houston.

Or there’s Silva’s method for taking home a smaller piece of history.

“I befriended a construction manager and asked if I could a hold of the original brick,” he admits. “I got a couple of the windows from the original skylight and have a little mini-collection now. It’s important to see these things repurposed, and to put them to good use.”