Fountains Archives - Page 17 of 17

As watershaping moves toward new creative frontiers, the trade is approaching a point where it’s tough to set a boundary between craft and art. One who clearly has crossed the line into fine art is modernist sculptor Barton Rubenstein, who uses water to create a range of intriguing aesthetic experiences. They might not look like other watershapes, but he insists that the physical and aesthetic principles he applies are all quite familiar.

Fluid Expressions

It's an age-old paradox, this relationship between art and science. On the face of it, things artistic may seem solely the realm of high-flying thinkers and philosophers who spend their days at the far reaches of interpretation and meaning. By contrast, engineers and scientists would seem to be dealing purely in the certainties of what is quantifiable and real. The truth is, I don't know of a modern art form that doesn't involve technology of some kind. Conversely, most branches of modern science call upon researchers to apply a great deal of intuition and creativity to the processes of exploration and discovery. In other words, neither the arts nor the sciences could exist without ideas and disciplines derived from the other. That's especially true when it comes to water systems. Whether created for aesthetic or recreational purposes, art and science can come together here in a particularly compelling and interesting way. By combining technical disciplines with

The health and welfare of a typical pond or lake depends on a long list of factors – not the least of which, says engineer Erich Altvater, is proper aeration. If you get it right, he says, you can improve water quality; miss the mark, however, and many man-made ponds or lakes will fall into an unwelcome imbalance. Here, he explains what it takes to understand the water’s needs and guide clients to the proper aerating system.

Good Aerations

As the watershaping industry gets more involved with naturalistic bodies of water - particularly large ponds, lakes and streams intended to harbor life in the forms of aquatic plants and fish - it becomes increasingly worthwhile to understand the important role of proper aeration. Aeration is a simple process involving the injection of dissolved oxygen (DO) into water. Nature aerates by way of things such as waterfalls and rain - activities we must imitate by mechanical means in our man-made settings if fish are to be healthy and a host of water-quality problems are

Interactive waterfeatures are hot these days. Hotel chains, resorts, theme parks and even municipalities have jumped on what Jeff Horvath describes as an ‘interactive bandwagon’ to kick up interest among locals and tourists alike. It’s a simple formula: By attracting children and their families with a combination of design appeal, flexibility and fun, these innovative watershapes boost traffic – and revenues.

Dancing Waters

In conceptual terms, interactive fountains are really nothing new. In fact, fountains have featured water effects and sequencing lights since the turn of the 20th Century. What's emerged lately is a perception that these "dancing" waters are great sources of fun - a means for children to get soaked and for adults to stay dry and enjoy the show. This resurgence of interest has led designers and manufacturers to apply the knowledge and mechanics of the past in creating effects that delight the eye, capture the imagination and bring fun to

You see them more and more often these days: Streams of water leaping from beneath paved walkways or plazas in a display that adds drama, beauty and interactive fun to any public space. In this feature, system designer and manufacturer Jon Mitovich shows how these projects, known as ‘dry-deck’ fountains, come together as projects and how their very special effects are achieved.

Standing Tall on Deck

It was one of those projects where aesthetics, technology, function and history all came together. Installed on a pier on the waterfront in Hoboken, N.J., right across the river from the Manhattan skyline, the dry-deck fountain pictured on these pages was part of a civic development movement aimed at creating new public areas on both the New York and New Jersey shores. Our company, Roman Fountains of Albuquerque, N.M., first became involved in the project in 1996, when we

On paper, reports Ben Dixon, the design fired everyone’s imagination by taking a garden-variety, linear waterfall and enhancing the visual effect with a set of serpentine twists and turns. But making that effect work on site was a different matter – one that called for ingenuity on the part of the construction crew as well as the waterfall system’s supplier.

Custom Contours

This waterfall could've been built in either of two ways: A system of internal reservoirs and a long, narrow nozzle could've been formed as part of the structure itself, a task that would've placed huge burdens on the forming crew and the person shooting the gunite; or a manufactured fixture could be used to create the desired effect. Sensibly, the folks at Tango Pools in Las Vegas chose to pursue the latter option, deciding it would be better to