Solstice Window
2000
·
Durango, Colorado
+ Project Details
Abstract
A precast concrete window that catches the summer solstice sunrise and projects a spiral of light across the Great Hall of the Center of Southwest Studies. Each year the museum opens before dawn so the public can watch it.
Narrative
The Solstice Window takes its inspiration from Ancient Puebloan architecture. Once a year at sunrise, sunlight enters the window and collimates a shaft of light across the Great Hall of the Center of Southwest Studies, casting the form of a spiral onto the opposite wall. Hovenweep and Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon are precedents for this window, which is not a window in the ordinary sense but a 450-pound block of precast concrete located on the campus of Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. And actually, solstice windows exist in smaller ruins all over the Southwest.
Since the installation in 2000, a wonderful gathering has occurred at the Center every June solstice dawn, which is a rare thing for a public artwork to produce. The Center opens before sunrise the day of the solstice, around 5:45 am, and the public is invited to come be a part of this annual celebration.
Thanks to Don Asquin, astronomer extraordinaire, for collaborating on the window alignment, and Paul Gallasch (1958–2002) for the great conversation and introduction to the allegorical work of Douglas Darden (1951–1996). This project follows that tradition of a reversa, the inversion that brings the outside in, once a year.
