Quote:
Originally Posted by honte
The whole digitization of Buckingham Fountain thing and new dancing water and crap, it just infuriates me. It's pretty hard to improve on Buckingham Fountain, aside from saving water (although the overspray to me is part of its charm), and I certainly didn't hear anyone complaining about it not being effective. It's also supposed to be a city landmark. I have to give them the benefit of the doubt here, but I do so with great hesitation.
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I think it's right to be wary. The 1994 restoration so many people are complaining about was in fact only $2.8 million (funded by the endowment) in comparison to the current $25 million project, but that was focused on repairs to its marble cladding, replacement of the concrete substructure of the upper basin, and repair of its mechanical pump systems. But it also overhauled the electrical system, with special care to follow the artists original intent:
"The need to recreate the proper colors and intensity while staying true to the original artist's concept was ESD's main task. The original fixtures and lamps needed reinforcing in order to increase the amount of light and to counter the increase in city light that had developed over the years. (...) The fixtures were mounted in an area that was subject to splashing water from morning until night and needed to remain serviceable while the lenses matched the output of the original fixtures that were replaced during the 1950 renovation. (...) The new fixtures had a new source and lenses that matched the color but also delivered more light to counter balance the increased city light. ESD and the architect created the new colored lenses by staring into a light table, illuminated by daylight fluorescent lamps, and comparing the existing lenses or lense shards saved over the years with Roscoe color gels. ESD was able to recreate a complete match for all the original colors in the fountain due to this process. The selected colors were then turned over to a specialty glass company to formulate the specific colors and create the lenses for our newly designed fixtures."
-http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/1287.htm
Kate Buckingham "wanted the lighting to achieve an effect of "soft moonlight" by blending colors that would create an "ethereal, mystical aura."
However, the 1994 lighting design wasn't a restoration either. "The new program, said Joe Hoerner, the Chicago Park District's fountain restoration project manager, "evokes totally different emotions. It's more dynamic. . . . The design of lights relates to what's happening in the water. It used to be more random. Over the years, it became a little out of sync."
"We tried to document what the original light and water show was like when the fountain was built and first turned on in 1927," said Joe Hoerner, the Park District's preservation architect. "We wanted to replicate the show historically, but there was no way to know what was in the original show."
During the fountain's nine-month, $2.9 million restoration , Hoerner said, officials had hoped to restore its original light and water sequences but could find no documentation of them. So instead, they turned to the theater world.
Jefferson Award-winning theater designer John Culbert, a faculty member of DePaul University's Theater School, designed the light and water sequencing. The result, said Park District spokeswoman Sheryl Hislop, "is spectacular." "
"I wanted to create something elegant, not a rock 'n' roll laser light show," Culbert said. "We looked at the rhythm of how the light and water changes and created a storyboard series of sketches of routines the fountain could follow.
"The `looks' we developed took advantage of new lights and the new valves and spouts. That allowed us to create many different compositions I feel are quite clean and crisp in their look." (Tribune and Sun Times, 1994)
So now the new plan is going to revamp the lighting with Wet Design, known for the Bellagio, and "They're also debating between new lamps that show sharper colors and the yellowish, more romantic hues of the current lights."?
And the pavers sound like a done deal: "The site work includes the installation of an exciting, new permeable paver from Unilock with a granite chipped surface" (From TDA Planning website)
Sounds like that would contradict Buckingham's intent, as the paving issue arguably does. But the basin repair, treatment of seahorses and fences, and landscaping are all good things.
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Ironic, after years of delays what a time to pin down financing.
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