Bat sculpture photos

This is a special section of my photo album documenting the history of Austin's new bat sculpture known as "Nightwing" at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Barton Springs Road in Austin, Texas. The sculpture, completed in June 1998, is a metallic bat painted purple with reflective white flecks in the paint. It rotates in the wind, and turns significantly in even a slight breeze, so it might be interesting to go down there while a 60 mile-per-hour storm blows through and watch it spin like a top! Hopefully they've designed it to withstand harsh conditions like that. The sculpture was designed by Austin artist Dale Whistler.

The photos begin with the empty traffic island in the middle of the intersection during February and March 1998. Then, in June 1998, the concrete base was poured and a workman finished the exterior of the base. Then, around mid-June 1998, the bat itself was placed on the base, hidden in a dropcloth until the official unveiling the next day. Then, on June 12, 1998, the bat was revealed! Unfortunately, I missed the actual ceremony when they removed the dropcloth, because the exact time of the ceremony was never made public. Anyway, I went down there later and got some good photos of the completed bat.

Move your mouse cursor over any of the photos below for a quick summary of the picture's contents. Click on a thumbnail for a detailed view of any picture.

These are from the first "Freetail free-for-all" bat viewing event put on by the Austin American-Statesman to celebrate the new bat sculpture.

Here are some more bat sculpture photos that I took after I created this page: