Nancy Holt, Sky Mound: Sun Viewing Area with Pond and Star Viewing Mounds (1985)

Graphite on paper

23 ½ in. x 47 ½ in. (59.7 x 120.7 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

a colored pencil drawing showing a site plan for skymound with paths, a pond, methane flames, and greenery.

Nancy Holt, Sky Mound: Sun Viewing Area with Pond and Star Viewing Mounds (1985)

Graphite on paper

23 ½ in. x 47 ½ in. (59.7 x 120.7 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Sky Mound: Moon Viewing Area (1985)

Graphite on paper

21 in. x 44 ½ in. (53.3 x 113 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

a colored pencil drawing showing a site plan for skymound with paths, a pond, methane flames, and greenery.

Nancy Holt, Sky Mound: Moon Viewing Area (1985)

Graphite on paper

21 in. x 44 ½ in. (53.3 x 113 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Sky Mound: Sun Viewing Area as Seen from the New Jersey Turnpike (1985)

Graphite on paper

23 ½ in. x 47 ½ in. (59.7 x 120.7 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

a colored pencil drawing showing a site plan for skymound with paths, a pond, methane flames, and greenery.

Nancy Holt, Sky Mound: Sun Viewing Area as Seen from the New Jersey Turnpike (1985)

Graphite on paper

23 ½ in. x 47 ½ in. (59.7 x 120.7 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Sky Mound: Sunrise on the Spring and Summer Equinoxes (1985)

Graphite on paper

23 ½ in. x 30 in. (59.7 x 76.2 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

a colored pencil drawing showing a site plan for skymound with paths, a pond, methane flames, and greenery.

Nancy Holt, Sky Mound: Sunrise on the Spring and Summer Equinoxes (1985)

Graphite on paper

23 ½ in. x 30 in. (59.7 x 76.2 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Aerial view of the original Sky Mound site taken in 1984

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

An aerial view of a triangular mounded landmass, surrounding by roads and rail tracks

Aerial view of the original Sky Mound site taken in 1984

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Nancy Holt, Original site plan for Sky Mound (1986)
Color pencil on blueprint
41 x35 in. (104.1 x 88.9 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

A site plan of Nancy Holt's Sky Mound

Nancy Holt, Original site plan for Sky Mound (1986)
Color pencil on blueprint
41 x35 in. (104.1 x 88.9 cm)

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Sky Mound construction in 1991

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Several workers rolling out a large sheet of white plastic

Sky Mound construction in 1991

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Sky Mound construction in 1991

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Workers moving soil and planting bushes with a city skyline in the distant background

Sky Mound construction in 1991

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Sky Mound construction in 1991

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Workers installing methane pipes in a trench

Sky Mound construction in 1991

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Sky Mound construction in 1991

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Workers filling gabions with rocks to create a retaining wall along the edge of a pond

Sky Mound construction in 1991

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Aerial view of the Sky Mound site taken in 2006

Photograph: Matthew Coolidge, 2006

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

An aerial view of a triangular mounded landmass, surrounding by roads and rail tracks

Aerial view of the Sky Mound site taken in 2006

Photograph: Matthew Coolidge, 2006

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

The entrance to the Sky Mound site

Photograph: Matthew Coolidge, 2006

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

An entry gate on a gravel road with a vegetated landmass in the background

The entrance to the Sky Mound site

Photograph: Matthew Coolidge, 2006

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

The pond created at the top of the mound for Sky Mound  in 1991

Photograph: Matthew Coolidge, 2006

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

A small pond with grasses and sedges in the foreground and deciduous trees in the background.

The pond created at the top of the mound for Sky Mound  in 1991

Photograph: Matthew Coolidge, 2006

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Gravel road and gravel swale that surround the base of the mound at the site of Sky Mound

Photograph: Matthew Coolidge, 2006

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

A gravel road with two tall electricity towers in the background

Gravel road and gravel swale that surround the base of the mound at the site of Sky Mound

Photograph: Matthew Coolidge, 2006

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

View of the Manhattan skyline from the top of the Sky Mound site

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

View of the Manhattan skyline in the distance with roads and electricity infrastructure visible in the foreground

View of the Manhattan skyline from the top of the Sky Mound site

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

1984—2014

Sky Mound

Nancy Holt
1984—
I-A Landfill, Hackensack Meadowlands, New Jersey, USA
Overall: 57 acres (23.1 ha); Height: 110 ft. (33.5 m)
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Four miles from Manhattan, in between the New Jersey Turnpike and the Amtrak railway, lies a massive landfill. Holt was recruited to design the reclamation of the site, which would both mitigate environmental damage and transform the landfill into a sculptural observatory. She planned to incorporate gravel paths in alignment with the solstices, a large gunite sphere encircled by a moat to represent the moon, methane flares visible from planes overhead, and a pond that would attract wildlife and drain surface water from the landfill. This pond is the only realized portion of Holt’s design—the rest is delayed indefinitely.

Writing

Scholarly Text
a colored pencil site plan drawing of Sky Mound with paths, small hills, and a pond

Nancy Holt’s Sky Mound: “The exposure is better than at the Met”

Monica Manolescu

Every time I travel from Strasbourg, where I live and work, to Princeton, where I go for research, I fly from Frankfurt to Newark and then drive to my destination. The landscape is made of highways, parking lots, office buildings, motels, and occasional vegetation, but nothing stands out and invites one to pause. Nancy Holt’s unfinished Sky Mound (1984-1991) was meant to catch the eye, provoke awe and tear the texture of suburban New Jersey by its stunning difference.

Read more
Scholarly Text
A room full of conduit and light

Nancy Holt’s System Works: A Reflection on Research

Julia L. Alderson
Nancy Holt began producing her System Works in the early 1980s. These installation and site-responsive projects referenced resource delivery—specifically heating, electrical, drainage, plumbing, and ventilation systems. Though aesthetically the works vary greatly, based on the specific parts and mechanics needed for the variety of systems involved, they are intimately related in their thematic intentions. Through them, Holt attempts to focus attention on devices that are considered critical for modern-day life, but that we tend to ignore, take for granted, and even disown.
Read more

One of the most interesting aspects of Sky Mound concerns Holt’s belief in its value and importance. In written presentations, talks, and conversations with journalists, she emphasized its originality and scope, both aesthetic and environmental. Articles quote her remarks on its sheer size (the mound spreads over fifty-seven acres and it was going to be the largest artwork in the north-east of the United States) and its innovative character, since landfills had previously been transformed into recreational areas, ski slopes or golf courses, but never works of art: 'We’re breaking new ground here. This is going to set a precedent with an aesthetic way of dealing with landfills.'

Monica Manolescu

"Nancy Holt’s Sky Mound: 'The exposure is better than at the Met.'" Holt/Smithson Foundation: Scholarly Texts Chapter 8 (August 2025).

Related Info

1977—1980
three large concrete spheres and one circular tunnel surrounded by trees, grass, and large buildings
Dark Star Park
Nancy Holt
1979-84
1977—1980

Holt designed ​Dark Star Park i​n concert with the development of the site as a whole, integrating landscaping and sculptural features to encompass the neighboring building and adjacent traffic island. Concrete spheres are interspersed throughout the park, visible through tunnels, reflected in pools of water, and framed in the carved-out hole of another sphere. Every year on Dark Star Park Day people gather to watch the shadow alignment.

1984—2014
forthcoming
Up and Under
Nancy Holt
1987-98
1984—2014

Located in an old sand quarry in Finland, Holt’s ​Up and Under w​as commissioned by artist and farmer Osmo Rauhala as part of a larger effort to restore and reclaim developed land. The work is made up of a curved, winding mound of earth, through which one vertical tunnel and seven horizontal tunnels—aligned with the North star, Polaris—are installed. Three reflective pools of water are positioned around the base of the sculpture. The vertical tunnel brings a view of the sky down from above, while earth collected from sites across Finland lie just underfoot.

See Also

A circular pool of water reflecting a blue sky.
Hydra's Head
Nancy Holt
1974
Along the Niagara River, Artpark, Lewiston, New York