Fountains
As purveyors of fountains and other forms of decorative or recreational water, watershapers are faced these days by an immediate challenge: What we do is generally classified as "unsustainable" by an environmentally conscious public because they erroneously assume poor performance when it comes to the way we approach water consumption, use of space and energy efficiency. On the surface, these are serious knocks on
As watershapers, we're comfortable using our chosen medium as a place-maker, an entertainer and a resource for recreation. In doing so, we take advantage of the fact that water is a unique, extremely versatile substance that can be manipulated in innumerable ways. We also accommodate the thought that, supreme among design media, water has a pronounced and often profound effect on people who
In concept, water walls are pretty straightforward: You pump a bit of water to the top of a structure and set up a weir or spillways or a system of emitters to release water so that it moves down the face of the wall the way you want it to flow. In actuality, however, water walls are much more complicated than that. In fact, there are lots of things that
Projects in significant public spaces are rewarding on many levels, but they also carry their fair share of challenges, mostly in the forms of scheduling, coordination and communication. For us at Crystal Fountains (Concord, Ontario, Canada), these hurdles are beyond familiar: For decades, we've been a go-to working partner for fountain and interactive waterfeature projects around the world, from the Crown Fountain
When it comes to ostentatious and even audacious aquatic displays, there's no doubt that the Middle East now boasts some of the world's most incredible watershapes. Even a quick survey reveals a tremendous range of architectural and hydrological marvels in which technology is paired with grandeur to stunning effect. Several instances of this exuberance appear on
This is one of those cases where, from a design perspective, I said just about everything I wanted to say about rain-curtain effects in the video linked below. They look great, they sound even better and my clients love them. So what else is there to consider? Well,
Yards Park is a wonderful open space in the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood of Washington, D.C. One of its main attractions is in the middle block of the park, where you'll find a grand watershape with a footprint that covers an area spanning 20 by 135 feet. At one end, there's a fountain/waterfeature that immediately catches the eye. But the big draw
When the management at Longwood Gardens announced in late 2014 that the Main Fountain Garden would be taken offline and become the subject of a $90 million restoration project, anyone who has ever visited the gardens had to be happy. I've been a regular visitor and huge fan of the Longwood for most of my life, and it's been sad through the years to watch various systems break down and the overall performance of what was left gradually
Starting in 1661, Louis XIV of France began a building project at his country estate in Versailles that would keep him busy throughout what remained of his reign. He held on all the way through until 1715, so he had a good, long time to browbeat large numbers of architects, designers and engineers into making the chateau a statement of power, wealth and majesty befitting a man who called himself Le Roi Soleil
David L'Heureux For much of human history, those with power and wealth have been willing to put both on display in the places they choose to reside. There are palaces and great houses all over the planet, each one testifying to the grandeur of its owner and the talents of the architects and designers brought in to turn grand visions into actual structures and garden spaces. Often, those commissioning these conspicuous projects were members of
