Bowie Portal Sundial

sundial 8 thumbnail.jpgThe large monumental sundial that stands in the front driveway of the City Hall is the work of Taos, New Mexico artists Gino and Judith Schiavone. The steel base of the dial forms a portal, reflecting the dial’s name, “Bowie Portal Sundial” and the portal acts as a symbolic entrance to all the potential of Bowie’s future.

The design and crafting of the dial and the tile mosaic base took just over a year to do. On-site installation of the dial took over a week. The dial is erected on two stainless steel posts that hold the 48-inch by 66-inch copper and brass vertical dial 15.5 feet off the ground. The dial’s style is a vertical brass window dial. The hour lines and seasonal declination lines appear as filigree, using a frosted glass surface to allow the time to be seen from both inside City Hall and along Excalibur Road.

Sundials measure time by the position of the sun which casts a shadow onto its surface marked with lines to indicate the hours of the day. As the sun moves across the sky the shadow-edge aligns with different hour-lines.

At the entrance of the sundial portal are bronze outlines of children at play, symbolizing the children as a true asset of Bowie and linking the present to Bowie’s future. Two granite benches flank the portal and underneath the benches running horses are etched, thus reflecting back to Bowie’ long horse racing history.