Fountains

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
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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
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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
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