In 1987 Nancy Holt developed several proposals for outdoor sculpture at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (formerly Southeastern Massachusetts University, SMU) that remained unrealized: Time Lines, Sun Cuts, and this sculpture Solar Crossings. Later, in 1991, she realized the sculpture Spinwinder on the campus.

The drawings and model for Solar Crossings present a circular sculpture made of fieldstone and steel, recalling Holt’s earlier Stone Enclosure: Rock Rings (1977–78) located on the campus of Western Washington University. In this proposal, Holt shows a circular structure approximately 26 ft. (7.9 m) in diameter, formed from curved fieldstone walls, incorporating circular steel elements, and interrupted by openings. Four cylindrical poles stand within the structure, while two overlapping circles mark its center. She aligned the sculpture with the changing position of the sun. Openings through its walls frame the positions of sunrise and sunset at the summer and winter solstices and the spring and fall equinoxes.

One drawing seen above is titled Solar Crossings, but it depicts a different sculptural idea, closely resembles Holt’s model for another of the Dartmouth proposals, Sun Cuts.