This seminar explores the history and practice of “polychromatic reconstruction” in architecture. Polychromatic reconstruction typically describes the manner in which architects, historians, and archaeologists reconstruct the lost, colorfully painted surfaces of ancient classical sculptures and buildings. The seminar examines this practice through a much wider range of historical case studies and through a far broader concept of color recovery. The course explores polychromatic reconstruction globally and historically, in world-wide ancient and modern architectural artifacts and spaces; materially, by understanding the histories of colorants and their production; environmentally, by understanding the role of light and air pollution in color transformation; theoretically, by exploring pre- and post-Newtonian theories of color perception; and politically, by understanding how the practice often becomes entangled with contemporary debates about subjectivity and disciplinarity. Students read key historical and theoretical documents, examine archival evidence, hear from experts, and develop individual polychrome reconstruction projects. Ultimately, the course offers both a historical and theoretical analysis of a particular subject—the history of color reconstruction in architecture—and a model for combining the pedagogy of an architecture history and theory seminar with technical components found in lab-format courses. Limited enrollment.