The installation of Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s new sculpture "Point of Infinity” was completed this week on a hilltop on Yerba Buena Island, and it will act as a sundial so tall that the Federal Aviation Administration had to sign off on it.

You may be following the saga of the massive housing development projects on Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island, which aspire to house as many as 20,000 people. And if you’re following that saga, you know that the developers are suing each other, which certainly clouds those projects’ near-term future.

But other entities are still proceeding with adding new infrastructure and attractions to try to make theses islands an eventual destination. And to that end, the New York Times reports today that a new 69-foot stainless steel sundial called "Point of Infinity” was installed there this week, a work by the sculptor, photographer, and multimedia artist Hiroshi Sugimoto.

"The infinity point, where two curved lines are supposed to meet, only exists in the human mind; it’s a creation of human consciousness,” Sugimoto told the Times. "I wished to make it reach all the way to infinity, but that’s technically impossible."

While the sculpture is on a hilltop on Yerba Buena Island, it was developed and commissioned under the Treasure Island Art Program run by the San Francisco Arts Commission. The commission pegs the cost of the work at a $2 million cost, its 29 sections were fabricated in Japan, and shipped to Oakland in eight different containers before the work was put together on Yerba Buena Island.

"Point of Infinity” acts as a sundial, though without hour markings, and the Times adds that “Sugimoto will place a granite marker on the ground to align with the shadow cast by the artwork at solar noon on days of the spring and fall equinox.”  According to Secret San Francisco, the base is 23 feet across, and the tip of the spire is just 21 millimeters across

The Times also points out that “A ring of white gravel surrounds the sculpture to prevent it from becoming a skateboarding ramp.”

The sundial is a reference to another sundial that had been built there for the 1939 World’s Fair event, the Golden Gate International Exposition. There are a few other remaining works of art from that fair on the Treasure Island side, like the one above.

We should note that while this work is largely completed, it will not be open to the public until at least the fall. But you can still see it. The Art Newspaper adds that it’s visible from several points in San Francisco and the Bay Bridge. That site also reports that curiously, the piece is so tall that it “required clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration."

And when "Point of Infinity” does open to the public, remember there’s a new I-80 off-ramp at Yerba Buena Island, though it only has bike access from the Oakland side.

Related: Ten Years After It Was Commissioned, 102-Foot Twisting Sculpture Installed at 4th Street Central Subway Station [SFist]

Image: SF Arts Commission