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.

Continuum

The Julie Penrose Fountain is an amazing fountain in all respects. It towers over the open spaces of the America the Beautiful Park and sits atop a large pedestal that seconds as a turntable. The result is a sculpture that rotates every 15 minutes, and provides a delightful detail for many spectators to detect.

Dubbed ‘Continuum’ by creator Bill Burgess, this Colorado Springs fountain represents the life-giving properties of water and depicts in a simple way, precipitation from the sky. The sculpture stands over 40ft tall and weighs in at around 24 tons.

Architect David Barber lined the circular fountain with 366 water jets that spray water down to the fountain’s base where the fluid runs a circular path to the mouth of a pool and is collected for everyone to play in. The fountain is one of the Nation’s largest ‘sculptural fountains,’ and runs daily from 11:00 am to 5:30 pm between May 23 to August 22, and is open only on weekends from August 23 through Labor Day.

Dedicated June 7th 2007, the fountain’s construction underwent many setbacks due to budget crunches and uncertain funding. However, the fountain eventually received funding through the generous donations of El Pomar Foundation supporters. The organization was created to enrich the well being of Colorado residents. The Julie Penrose fountain is named after El Pomar Foundation Co-founder Julie Penrose, both she and her husband Spencer supported the project from its beginning.

Forsyth Park Fountain – Savannah Ga

I don’t know if I mentioned that I stopped in Savannah, Ga on my way back to Jacksonville from my trip a couple weeks ago, but I did. And like I mentioned in my very first post, I absolutely love Savannah and all the history there.

One of the most interesting things about this city is that it is apparently haunted. While I was there I asked a local tour guide if he knew about any haunted fountains. (I couldn’t help myself.) Below is the story he told me about the famous Forsyth Park Fountain.

Aaron and Lois Churchill were happily married and lived in what is now Forsyth Park Inn. They brought home a little girl name Lottie one night. Life was perfect for all three of them. One day when Lottie caught her sister Anna in the romantic embraces of her adopted father. Lottie decided that the best solution to the problem was to poison her sister, which she did.

Anna turned out to actually be her mother. When she was told that she had killed her mother Lottie went insane. She was committed from that moment on. The ghost of Lottie is not vengeful and instead is said to have a childlike spirit. The spirit of what she could have been and when she was most happy. Child’s laughter and footsteps are reported most often. She has been seen on the staircase and has been felt by the fountain in which she had watched her poisoned sister die.

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!