Lovejoy fountain

Our final trip of the year takes us to the northern far west, where the Oregon Trail ends – right to heart of Downtown Portland. Oregon is home to a very unique and now historic fountain that was completed in 1966 by American Landscape artist Lawrence Halprin. He was a well rounded man and his style of architecture was modern. He also taught and designed, earning a Bachelors from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

Now let’s learn a bit more about the state of Oregon. Before becoming a state, Oregon was inhabited by many indigenous tribes and settlers who created their own government in 1843. This land became known as the Oregon Territory and which eventually became the state of Oregon on February 14th 1859.

The City of Portland
Portland is Oregon’s largest city, and is nestled near the Willamette and Columbia rivers. The city is known for its public transportation systems and great land planning, the latter of which has earned Portland the reputation as one of the world’s most environmentally friendly cities. Locals enjoy Portland’s many microbreweries and rose gardens, especially because Portland is described as very outdoor friendly city with many outdoor activities. Portland was incorporated in 1851 and is located near the end of the Oregon Trail.

The Lovejoy Name
The Lovejoy fountain was the first in a series of fountains created for the South Auditorium District – a renewal district project with the aim to enrich the city. The fountain sits within the Lovejoy Plaza, a one-acre plaza designed by Halprin + Associates and Satoru Nishita, partner-in-charge. The plaza sits only 300 yards away from Pettygrove Park. The Lovejoy fountain is the centerpiece of the Lovejoy plaza which is connected to other parks including the famous Keller Fountain Park.

The fountain itself is named after Asa Lovejoy, one of the first landowners of the Portland Town site. Halprin the landscape architect formed the Halprin Landscape Conservancy in 2001 to enhance and protect the Lovejoy Plaza, the Ira Keller fountain and Pettyprove Park.

The fountain itself mimics a waterfall and creates the effect of rushing streams of water that complement the placid pool of water nearby. The entire space was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in March 2013.

The Most Expensive Fountain

I hope you’re ready for some fun under the sun, because today we are visiting a city know for having world’s biggest, tallest, highest and most expensive of just about everything you can imagine. We are talking about Dubai, Emirate of Dubai within the United Arab Emirates.

The cities’ earliest settlement records date back to 1799 and Dubai was formally established on June 9th, 1833, after Sheikh Maktoum bin Butti Al-Maktoum brought 800 members of his tribe to settle at the Dubai Creek.

Dubai is an emirate; a political territory ruled by a dynastic Muslim monarch. These emirates make up the Unites Arab Emirates. Nestled in the center of the Burj Dubai, is the Dubai Fountain. This record breaking fountain is to date, the world’s most expensive fountain, costing 217 million to make. The fountain’s price tag is well merited as the fountain spans a length of 900ft and propels water 500ft into the air.

See the Burj Dubai in action:

The fountain is the work of WET Designs, a company known for building the impressive Bellagio Fountain in Las Vegas. To keep things visible for up to 20 miles away, the Dubai fountain includes 6,600 WET super lights and 25 color projectors. However, the fountain can also be synchronized to different styles of music ranging from classical to contemporary. The super fountain was inaugurated on May 8th, 2009 and sits in a 30 acre lake known as Burj Dubai lake.

See the sheer scale of the Burj Dubai in this picture:

Within the same downtown development sits the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa and next to it, the world’s largest shopping mall, the Dubai Mall. Dubai is the city of wonder with many of the world’s latest and greatest, just make sure to carry some cash, because it is also the 22nd most expensive city in the world.

The Peacock Fountain

A commonly photographed tourist attraction, The Peacock Fountain located in Christchurch Botanic Gardens is truly a sight for sore eyes. And no, we’re not talking about the animal “peacock” when referring to this fountain, but rather the man it was was named after.

The fountain came about when John Thomas Peacock gave a large sum of money to beautify “the reserves and gardens in the city of Christchurch” and the Avon River.

This fountain, constructed by Coalbrookdale Iron Works, was unveiled in 1911, then moved to another location, then finally put in storage for years due to maintenance issues. In 1996, after a $270,000 renovation, it was commission to be instated at it’s third location: Christchurch.

From bright colors to beautiful-crafted detail, this fountain has a lot of unique traits not as commonly found in the works of traditional water features. Over the years, many onlookers have had many opinions (not always flattering) about the design of the Peacock Fountain. Robert Herdman Smith, head of the Canterbury College School of Art claimed it “exhibited no more taste than the gaudy decoration used by travelling showmen to embellish their merry go-rounds.” Albeit a controversial color scheme, I found it to be rather lovely.

My favorite part is the bright color scheme. So many fountains stick to monochromatic, so it was refreshing to see something so out of the ordinary. The slight touches of red and the natural and unnatural colorations of the featured creatures was fascinating! I’m also a big fan of the sea monster-esque ornaments who reside on the bottom detail of the fountain. If you’re ever in Christchurch, New Zealand – this fountain is most definitely a must-see.

The World’s Largest Fountain

Although this fountain isn’t built yet Emaar Properties in Dubai plan to build a huge fountain that will be the biggest in the world. Although it hasn’t been built or even named yet pictures can found on the internet showing off the beautiful design.

The fountain will be capable of shooting water over 150 meters into the air, which is the height of a 50 story building! And like other large fountains this one will have a integral light and sound show!

Another Fountain Video

I was scouring Youtube again and found this really cool video by SAI Fountains. I actually had showcased some of these fountains and had no idea they were made by the same company!

Swarovski Face Fountain

What girl doesn’t love Swarovski crystals? It was during my search for some new jewelry that I discovered a really cool, but frankly bizarre looking fountain that creates the entrance for the crystal themed indoor park, Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds).

This huge fountain is built into the hillside of Austria creating a tribal looking face that spurts water from its mouth. The eyes of the face are made from unblinking crystals that light up at night.

The pictures of this fountain are absolutely fascinating as it appears that the fountain is a natural part of the hillside.

Floating Fountains

My last post about the quirky fountains from The Big Giving got me thinking about other strange fountains I have heard about. Behold the Floating Fountains designed by Isamu Noguchi in Osaka Japan.

These fountains tap into the world of science fiction as they rise above the water in a pseudo-lift off supported by jets of water. The illusion is incredible, especially at night. And now onto the pictures!

 

I love the design of these nine floating fountains.

Washington Park, Ohio

I mentioned in my last post that I had visited NYC with my longtime friend, Hannah. It was during this trip that Hannah discovered my love for water fountains and decided she would tell me about some of her favorite fountains.

Hannah is an Ohio native and told me about a wonderful fountain in Cincinnati at Washington Park. Like some of my favorite fountains, the fountain at Washington Park is huge and interactive!

It is state-of-the-art with 7,000 square feet of interactive water jets. The reason Hannah mentioned this particular fountain is because her kids absolutely love playing there in the 130 plus pop up jets that are synchronized to lights and music.

Hannah showed me pictures of the fountain she took on her last trip to Washington Park and it looked like such a fun place to visit!

Big Springs Park, AL

Big Spring Park is named after the original water source that the city of Huntsville was built around. The Big Spring was an underground karst spring that was discovered by the Cherokee and Chickasaw in that area.

Today the park is situated in downtown Huntsville, and features a beautiful fountain that has been ingeniously worked into the park’s canal. This fountain keeps in line with the history and importance of the Huntsville area, and I really enjoyed seeing it. I thought the design of this fountain was so cool and original. I haven’t really seen anything like it before. The picture below doesn’t really even capture how perfectly this fountain fits in with the rest of the park.

The Yards

I was in Washington D.C. again last week to visit some friends from college and while I was there we went to the Capital Riverfront area to see The Yards Park. This area is a welcome reprieve from the busy traffic and noise of D.C. and has yoga classes every week that we had to check out!

The Yards is thoughtfully laid out with grassy areas and outdoor rooms that are perfect for relaxing and doing yoga. There is also a wonderful canal water feature that runs down the center of the park and meets up with the Acosta River.

The Yards is a perfect mix of activity and serenity and all of the water features and landscaping reflect that. There is a really cool water feature that overlooks the canal and a modern foot bridge that caught my eye. It had a rectangular shaped pool with lines of water that were accented with blue lights. Children were welcome to play in the fountain which I could appreciate because it was hot that day! This fountain was so fun and enjoyable to look at that I had to mention it!