Documented artwork / site-specific outdoor sculptural installation
Desert Towers
Credit as documented: Dale Chihuly
Desert Towers is Dale Chihuly’s entrance installation at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Chihuly’s studio dates it to 2008 and identifies it as the entry point for his first exhibition at the Garden. The Garden’s own account adds a specific landscape relationship: the sculptures were created for the agave spiral at the entrance. They subsequently became a retained legacy of that exhibition. In 2010, Oonagh Boppart and Hazel Hare led a fundraising Invitational with trustees Jan Lewis and Ted Lagried to support purchase and permanent display. This acquisition history distinguishes Desert Towers from the separately named installations introduced during Chihuly’s later Garden exhibition, including Sapphire Star and Desert Neon.
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At a glance
- Year / version
- 2008
- Materials
- Not documented
- Documented setting
- outdoor
- Dimensions
- Not documented
- Dimensions apply to
- Not documented
- Availability
- Unconfirmed
Places & versions
Installation history
Historical presentations. A past installation does not establish the current location or suitability for a new site.
Installed for the 2008 exhibition; permanent-display acquisition campaign documented in 2010
Entrance agave spiral, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona
- Site
- Desert Botanical Garden entrance agave spiral
- City
- Phoenix
- State / region
- AZ
- Country
- United States (inferred; not independently confirmed)
- Historical siting
- permanent
- Setting
- outdoor
- Start year
- 2008
- Date meaning
- documented
Installation details checked 2026-10-17. Supporting source ↗.
Materials and construction
The reviewed studio and Garden accounts establish the entrance installation and acquisition history, but do not specify its material composition, component count or measured dimensions.
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Sources
- dbg.org ↗ · Checked 2026-10-17
- www.chihuly.com ↗ · Checked 2026-10-17