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)

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

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.

See Also

Hydra's Head
Nancy Holt
1974
Along the Niagara River, Artpark, Lewiston, New York