Crown Fountain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fountain interactively spouting water on visitors

Crown Fountain

Jaume Plensa, 2004

black granite reflecting pool dual LED screen, glass brick sculptures Height: 50 feet (15 m)

Chicago, Illinois, Millennium Park

Crown Fountain is an interactive public fountain in Millennium Park, in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Designed by Jaume Plensa, it opened in July 2004.^[1][2] The fountain consists of a black granite reflecting pool located between a pair of artistic and technically sophisticated opposing glass brick sculptures measuring 50 feet (15.2 m) in height.^[1] The structure involved numerous complicated electronics and architectural considerations,^[3] and the construction and design cost $17 million.^[2][4] Throughout most of the warmer months, it incorporates water in the form of a cascade and spouting water nozzle as well as a reflecting pool. The sculptures are known for the digital videos of Chicago residents that they display continuously throughout the year.

The fountain has been praised by both trained architects and ordinary city residents for its artistic contribution to Millennium Park.^[5] In addition, the fountain has a reputation as a public play area that accommodates a need to escape from summer heat. At times when the National Weather Service issues summer heat advisories and the Illinois Governor is compelled to declare state office buildings as official daytime cooling centers, the national press points to Crown Fountain as a respite not only for Chicagoans, but also for residents of the most remote reaches of the Chicago metropolitan area.^[6]

The fountain has found its way into Chicago pop culture. It is a popular subject for photographers and a common gathering place. In addition, the use of video clips of local residents makes the fountain a place not only to go to see others and to be seen frolicking with friends and family, but also a place for hundreds of Chicagoans to go to attempt to see themselves.^[7] The fondness of the public for the aesthetics of the fountain caused several elements of Chicago's society to voice a unified public opinion against the controversial use of surveillance cameras, which resulted in the immediate removal of the cameras.^[8] The fountain and the entire park in general are reputed for their universal design.^[9]

[edit] Artistry

The sculpture is unlit every five minutes.

Crown Fountain, designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, was unveiled during the July 16–18, 2004 grand opening celebrations for Millennium Park.^[10] Millennium Park was conceived in 1998 as the capstone of Grant Park to celebrate the new millennium and to feature world-renowned architects, artists, designers, landscape architects, and urban planners.^[9] It is on the east side of Michigan Avenue across from the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District, north of the Art Institute of Chicago and south of the McCormick Tribune Plaza and Ice Rink between Madison and Monroe Streets. It sits with a northward backdrop that not only includes some of the tallest buildings in Chicago, but also includes some of the tallest buildings in the world, especially the skyscrapers along Randolph Street: Aon Center, One Prudential Plaza, Two Prudential Plaza, and Smurfit-Stone Building. Skyward viewers also see the eastern backdrop of Lake Michigan. The $17 million construction and design cost was largely funded by the Crown family, who donated $10 million and for whom the fountain is named.^[2][11] The Goodman family (Goodman Theatre) was also a large contributor.^[3] The fountain's black granite reflecting pool measures 48 feet by 232 feet (15 m × 71 m) and has an approximate water depth of .25 inches (0.6 cm).^[1] It includes two LED screened glass brick sculptures, one at each end, measuring 50 feet by 23 feet by 16 feet (15.2 m × 7.0 m × 4.9 m).^[1] The project won the 2006 Bombay Sapphire prize for its design work with glass.^[12]

Series showing puckering digitized image and spouting water

The fountain is animated through a continuous dynamic exhibit of lights and electronic images.^[1] There are sometimes clips of landscapes or natural waterfalls, but the towers are best known for their display of Chicago residents. About 1,000 faces of Chicagoans are displayed in random rotations^[2] using a Barco Show controller.^[3] The artist intends to portray the social evolution of the city by updating the collection of images.^[1] The subjects were chosen from local schools, churches and community groups, and the filming began in 2001 at the downtown campus of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Of the original 1,051 subjects shot, 960 videos were determined to be usable for the project. A June 2007 article in the Chicago Sun-Times reported that many of the subjects who had their images digitized for the project had yet to see their own images, or hear of anyone who had seen them.^[7] Plensa decided to use four-minute videos for each face and one minute of spouting water.^[7] Thus each display is five minutes,^[3] and there is brief period between the five-minute video displays during which the sculpture is unlit. As a result, at most 12 faces appear per hour.

The water has the illusion of flowing from mouths, usually puckered lips,^[2] of the displayed faces, reminiscent of gargoyle fountains.^[13][1] When the water is not spouting out of the outlet on the front of the tower, it cascades down each of the facades. While images are shown 24 hours a day year-round, the water feature operates from mid-spring through mid-fall each year, weather permitting. In 2006, the water feature opened on April 15.^[13] The two towers each are illuminated from within on three sides by approximately 70 color-changing Color Kinetics LED lighting fixtures per tower, while the fourth side features opposing Barco LED display screens. The outer Color Kinetics surfaces randomly display one of eight colors along with each of the inner opposing faces. At night some of the videos are replaced by images of nature or solid colors.^[3]

[edit] Architecture

The drainage system for the water shooting into the reflecting pool uses end-to-end cracks in lieu of central drains.		The cascading water falls towards grating.

After two architectural firms refused the contract to make Plensa's design a reality, the firm Krueck & Sexton Architects accepted it although it was a departure from their residential and corporate office portfolio.^[14] They designed a special stainless steel T-frame both to bear the gravity load of the 50 feet (15.2 m) walls and to withstand the lateral wind forces. The frame holds all the glass blocks, but it transfers the load to the base in a zigzag pattern. Rods measuring 0.5 inches (12.7 mm) in diameter anchor to the structure and project into the frame for lateral stability, while triangular corner brackets add support.^[15]

The glass was custom made at a factory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and fitted into small sections of the frame. The glass is white glass rather than the usual green glass that results from iron impurities. Each block is 5 inches by 10 inches by 2 inches (13 cm × 25 cm × 5.1 cm) with glass thin enough to avoid image distortion, with one out of the six faces of the block polished; the other five surfaces are textured.^[2]

The waterfall and the spout are popular attractions.

Crown Fountain has two drainage methods (pictured above right) to drain the 11,520 US gal (43,608 l/9,592 imp gal) of water per minute.^[16] The water is pumped and recirculated through the fountain. Dual pump rooms below each tower draw water from a reservoir beneath the reflecting pool. Although consideration was given to omitting an LED tile for the spout, it was determined that each image would look like it was missing a tooth. Instead, one tile in each tower is recessed about 6 inches (15 cm) to allow the installation of 1 inch (2.5 cm) clear tubing for the water feature.^[2] The water continuously spills over the fountain down the sides of the towers and intermittently spouts from the nozzle.^[2] The water is filtered and pumped from the underground parking garage. Two essential custom fittings contribute to the artistic vision of the fountain: a custom glass block at the upper edge for guiding the water's descent while remaining unobtrusive, and a plastic nozzle fitted to the stainless steel frame to control the rate of waterflow and reduce liability to the city for any injuries sustained by the fountain's interactive participants.^[15] The interactive participants are usually children playing in the stream from the water spout or under the cascade. Concern over the spouting water potentially knocking people down made the design a legal, as well as physical, challenge.^[15]

The water nozzle		LED lights can be seen behind the front face and are absent from other faces.

The physical demands of LED screens, in particular the red, green, and blue long-life light bulbs and the requisite circuitry, created three major challenges: supporting the physical structure, combating heat buildup, and optimizing legibility of the display.^[15] However, Plesna had used LED fixtures on previous projects.^[3] The LED structure is not supported as a 50-foot (15 m) wall, but rather as segments that are noticeable by visible horizontal bands that show where the LED equipment is supported every few feet. The heat is handled by fans that cool the air at the bottom that works its way through the chimney-like tower. Legibility was determined to be optimal with LED lights 2 inches (5.1 cm) behind the glass.^[15] The LEDs differ from standard light bulbs because they fit into an electrical circuit so that illumination results from the movement of electrons in the semiconductor material. A filament is unnecessary, so the bulbs never burn out and do not get too hot. Fins were added to the screens to keep direct sunlight from hitting the LEDs.^[17] The LED lighting was viewed as the lowest maintenance of the color changing fixtures options.^[3] ColorBlast 12 fixtures are used to illuminate the tower structures and glass in an attempt to meet Plesna's objective that the towers have a light and translucent appearance, with their internal structures reflecting light from behind the glass surface. The electronics were designed to be adaptable to the time of day, weather and season and to meet the desired century-long longevity and dependability objectives.^[3]

Crown fountain's 50-foot (15 m) opposing towers

An additional challenge was designing the structure to facilitate interior access for ongoing maintenance and repairs while accommodating two levels of underground parking underneath. The challenge was solved by combining a T-bar grid to absorb weight with about 150 "outriggers" or "tiebacks" inserted through the video wall to support the glass blocks and absorb wind loads. This design allows removal of individual glass blocks for cleaning or repair without disruption to the display. The filtered air inside the towers helps minimize the need for cleaning.^[2][18] In addition to the interior access for technical repairs, Crown Fountain is reputed for its exemplary non-discriminatory barrier-free accessibility because its interactivity is not limited to the able-bodied.^[9][3]

The control center for the synchronization of images, water flow, and lighting color and intensity is beneath one of the towers in a 550 square feet (51 m²) room. The room houses high-definition video servers and equipment temperature sensors. Hard drives contain all the individual files of faces. Generally, the computer programs automatically perform tasks such as determining when the face will pucker and, if weather conditions permit, when to turn the water on and off. It was determined that using low- rather than high-resolution images was both less expensive and an improvement on the optimal viewing point for the displays.^[2] A Barco Show Controller selects the sequence of faces one at a time and along with a random tower lighting selection of one of eight LED colors programmed into an Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) Emphasis® control system.^[3] At night, the ETC system controls spotlights that illuminate the cascading water and are dimmed by special wet-use location ground fault circuit interrupters.^[3]

[edit] Surveillance controversy

Night view

The Crown Fountain became the focus of a public controversy when the city added surveillance cameras atop of each of the towers in November 2006. Purchased through a $52 million Department of Homeland Security grant to the Chicago area, the cameras were part of a surveillance system augmenting eight other cameras covering the entirety of Millennium Park.^[19] The city claimed the cameras, similar to those used throughout city at high-crime areas and traffic intersections, were intended to remain on the towers for several months until permanent, less intrusive replacements were secured.^[8] City officials had consulted the architects who collaborated with Plensa on the tower designs, but Plensa himself had not been notified.^[20] Public reaction was negative, as bloggers and the artistic community decried the cameras on the towers as inappropriate and a blight.^[8][20] The Chicago Tribune quickly published an article concerning the cameras and the public reaction. The next day the cameras were removed, despite the city's claims that they were harmless. Plensa supported the removal.^[8]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Picture of controversial surveillance camera

v • d • e City of Chicago
Architecture · Climate · Colleges and Universities · Culture · Economy · Flag · Geography · Government · History · Landmarks · Media · Neighborhoods · Parks · Public Schools · Sports · Theatre
:See also: Chicago metropolitan area