Twilight Epiphany

James Turrell’s Skyspace on the Rice campus, at the Suzanne Deal Booth Centennial Pavilion beside the Shepherd School of Music. Houston. An aperture, a roof, and a timed LED sequence at the edge of day.

Grass, concrete, stone, and steel. The room is built for looking up and for sound performances and student work from the Shepherd School sit under the same roof.

Turrell’s sequence runs on the ceiling and through the opening. The sky in the square changes because the light around it changes.

• Opened in 2012.
• Seats about 120 on two levels.
• Roof is a 72-foot square.
• Sunrise sequence starts about 40 minutes before sunrise.
• Sunset sequence starts about 10 minutes before sunset.
• Each sequence runs about 40 minutes.

Turrell has worked with light and seeing for more than fifty years. Rice lists this among his Skyspaces. The photographs stay with the square of sky and the color on the underside of the roof.

Experiences