Creating an Illusion

The “floating faucet” sculpture pictured here has become a popular type of feature with numerous iterations around the globe. In this case, Chris Trevathan and his team from Underwater Glazing International discovered that making the slight-of-hand watershape effect stand up and function was deceptively tricky.  

By Chris Trevathan

When you’ve spent more than two decades working with acrylic — engineering and installing massive windows for pools, aquariums, and zoos — you think you’ve seen through it all. Then someone comes along and asks you to build a floating faucet.

It all started when we had a booth at the International Pool & Spa Show five years ago — where we display our work and talk to other professionals interested mostly in underwater viewing windows. On that day, custom watershape designer and builder Ryan Hughes stopped by with his team.

They do amazing high-end custom work and were in the midst of designing a pool and complex landscape at an ultra-upscale private estate in Orlando — a home so elaborate that its owner plans to one day donate it to the city for public events and weddings.

A Tall Challenge

Ryan explained that the client wanted a backyard filled with statement art pieces situated around a large custom swimming pool — including a multi-million-dollar elephant sculpture and, yes, a giant faucet that appears to float in midair with water streaming endlessly from its spout.

At our booth, we happened to have a small acrylic cylinder running as a water feature — just a conversation piece. Ryan saw it and explained that was very close to what they needed. But bigger — much bigger — and the top needs to be a faucet.

At that point, he didn’t have anyone willing to take on the job. He asked if we’d be interested.

I didn’t say it out loud, but my first thought was: absolutely not!

There were so many unknowns and you can’t buy a 19-foot acrylic cylinder with a custom-engineered hydrodynamic faucet top off the shelf. It has to be custom designed and engineered literally from the ground up. It was uncharted territory, at least as far as our vast experience went at the time.

But after some discussion with our team, and a few sleepless nights thinking it over, we decided to throw our hat in the ring.

The Team

To pull this off, we needed innovative partners we could trust. We reached out to Reynolds Polymer in Grand Junction, Colorado — one of the world’s top acrylic manufacturers who we’ve worked with for decades. Given the project’s complexity and the risk involved, Reynolds was the only one willing to join us.

We also brought in engineer David J. Peterson of Watershape Consulting in San Diego to handle the structural and fluid engineering challenges. Between Ryan’s design team, Reynolds’ fabrication expertise, Peterson’s fluid engineering wizardy, and our installation experience, we had the dream team — and we’d need it.

Design took nearly two years of back-and-forth dialogue and development. Every small change in height, flange detail, or internal fitting meant more calculations, more modeling and revision, but it slowly came together.

The finished piece would be 226 inches tall — just shy of 19 feet — with a 24-inch outside diameter and 2-inch-thick acrylic. It weighed nearly a ton. The cylinder was composed of three spin-cast sections, bonded seamlessly to create a single transparent column.

The clarity is astonishing. When water flows down its sides, you can’t see a single seam. Even when it’s dry, only the most trained eye could pick them out. But the beauty of that column hides an immense amount of engineering.

The hose-bib, the top assembly that sits atop the cylinder and also over the interior steel water distribution plate, is itself a work of art, made of reinforced polymer by Nassal, an Orlando-based custom fabricator. While absolutely essential to the artistic statement, the piece plays no role in the system hydraulics. It’s purely aesthetic.

Functionally speaking, the cylinder’s support and water distribution assembly was the big challenge. Peterson suggested adding an outboard flange at the base — a brilliant idea that helped anchor the cylinder against potential hurricane-force winds. That flange, however, made installation far more complicated.

To hold it all down, the flange was paired with a custom-fabricated FRP (fiberglass-reinforced polymer) ring, bolted into a reinforced concrete pedestal that would ultimately be hidden beneath a shallow reflecting pool. The base also concealed plumbing and internal fittings to allow water to rise through the cylinder and out the top — where it would flow, invisibly, over the edges.

The Lift

When the cylinder was fabricated and shipped from Reynolds’ facility in Colorado to the job site in Florida, the hard part was far from over. The site offered no access for a large crane. Instead we had to use a spider crane, a compact, portable hoist with just enough muscle to lift the 2,000-pound column.

Every move had to be choreographed. You can’t sling straps underneath something with a sealed bottom and a delicate outboard flange, so the entire lift had to be done from the outside — choked carefully at precise points to control rotation and balance.

Because we couldn’t get the cylinder fully vertical with the spider crane, we had to erect scaffolding and set it into the opening at a slight angle, adjusting fractions of inches at a time. The pedestal opening was only about half an inch larger than the cylinder, so tolerances were razor-thin.

After a long morning of nerves, sweat, and geometry, the moment came — we eased it into place, dead level and perfectly vertical. Everyone let out a cheer and gave each other high fives. It was pure relief, joy, and pride all at once.

Now, when you see it — this massive acrylic column rising from a reflecting pool, topped by a faucet that seems to pour endlessly into nothing — it’s absolutely mesmerizing.

Engineering the Flow

Designing the hydraulics was no small task either. Here’s a simplified explanation from Peterson of how it works:

“This project quickly became an exercise in creative problem-solving once the engineering team took a closer look at the internal workings of the system. The designers intended to feed water from below, sending it up through the center of the cylinder to spill evenly over the outer surface—creating the illusion of water magically flowing from a faucet suspended in air.

“Their plan was to bring the water straight up through the middle, split it at the top, and let it cascade down. But there was no real way to evenly distribute the water. Yet, the entire illusion depended on a perfectly uniform flow down the outside, and the original design could not deliver that. The original detail also raised red flags for maintenance. There’s no way to clean it. Biofilm would build up inside because the velocity isn’t high enough to flush it out.

“With those limitations in mind, we basically started from scratch. The goals were to reduce complexity, improve flow uniformity, and make maintenance practical.

“At the heart of the redesign was a reimagined distribution system that used fewer parts and more predictable hydraulics. The top assembly was reengineered as a modular structure consisting of a stainless-steel swivel assembly, a machined plastic distribution plate, and the acrylic cylinder itself. Around its perimeter, a series of bolts clamped it to the acrylic cylinder, creating a tight and stable joint.

“The big breakthrough came with a precisely machined distribution plate made from solid polyethylene. It has kind of like a castle detail, where water rises up through the center tube and hits this distribution surface. Each groove has a narrow throat on the inside that creates a little bit of back pressure. That back pressure helps equalize the flow all the way around the perimeter.

“From there, each channel gradually widens as it moves outward, allowing the velocity to slow in a controlled way. The design transforms turbulent, upward-moving water into a smooth, downward-flowing sheet that clings to the outside of the acrylic cylinder. Between the stainless-steel cap and the acrylic surface, we designed a gap of just a quarter inch. This narrow distance ensured that the water, once distributed through the machined grooves, was directed smoothly downward rather than spraying outward or breaking apart.

“In this way, the entire hydraulic effect—the illusion of water magically suspended in space—depended on fractions of an inch and the subtle interplay of pressure and velocity. Beyond its visual performance, the redesigned system also solved the long-term problems that had plagued the original concept. The simplified structure could be easily disassembled for cleaning or inspection. The system now combines precision machining, thoughtful hydraulics, and material science to transform raw water pressure into a graceful, uniform film.”

Completing the Scene

The faucet wasn’t our only contribution to the property. We also previously installed three large acrylic viewing windows for a koi pond that connects visually with the swimming pool, creating an effect where the koi appear to swim right beside the pool. Those windows had their own logistical headaches — tight spaces, no headroom, zero margin for error — but after the faucet job, they almost felt easy.

We’ve installed some of the world’s most famous acrylic features — including the glass-bottom pool at Houston’s Market Square Tower, 53 stories up — but this Orlando faucet sculpture ranks among the most technically challenging and rewarding projects of my career.

Major credit goes to our installation team: Tracy Lingo, Marc Fields, Jasun Joyal, Jarid Joyal, Richard Fernandez, and my beautiful wife, Ksenia Motter, who gave us all a much-needed sense of calm and patience.

Chris Trevethan is an acrylic glazing specialist and project manager for Underwater Glazing International based in Las Vegas, NV, a firm known for work on complex aquatic installations including pools, aquariums, zoos and luxury residences.

Photos courtesy of Underwater Glazing International, Las Vegas, NV; diagrams courtesy of David J. Peterson, Watershape Consulting, San Diego, CA.