Nancy Holt developed Solar Web in 1984 for the Natural Elements Sculpture Park, a proposed series of permanent artworks for Santa Monica Beach in California, organized by artist and curator Bruria Finkel. Holt’s was one of three projects selected from proposals by twenty-nine artists. The sculpture remains unrealized. Holt continued to develop the sculpture over the following fifteen years, including redesigning it to meet new seismic requirements after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. In 1999, the Santa Monica City Council voted against its construction by one vote.

Holt proposed an open structure formed from a network of steel poles rising from 2 1/2 to 16 ft. (76.2 cm to 4.9 m) above the sand. At its center was a twelve-pointed framework that Holt called a “sun-star” with a circular opening from which rows of parallel poles extended outward at diminishing heights., from which rows of parallel poles extended outward at diminishing heights. A circular platform stood beneath the highest point. The drawings and models here show the development of the project, including early alternative titles.

Holt precisely calculated Solar Web for its location on the beach. Its poles and apertures framed views across the Pacific Ocean and marked the movement of the sun. Three semicircular elements marked sunsets at the winter solstice, the spring and fall equinoxes, and the summer solstice. At solar noon on the summer solstice, sunlight passing through the central aperture would form a circle on the platform below. Across the day, sunlight would create shifting patterns across the structure and surrounding sand. In 1989 Holt explained, “It’s very open and airy; it gently frames the view of land and ocean.”