Architectural Fountain Design & Manufacturing
Washington, D.C.
The Yards Park, which includes a waterfall display, scrim features, and interactive jet features is located within a 42-acre site. Yards Park, formerly known as the Southeast Federal Center, is a favorite DC attraction for families and visitors. The interactive fountain was built in the first phase of a three-phase urban redevelopment project that began in 2008.
The immense size of the reflecting pool at nearly half a football field, added complexity to the systems that recirculate, filter, and purify the large volume of water. To further complicate the project, the design also included multiple features: a waterfall, an interactive display, and several walk-through water flows, called
Pumping a large volume of water to multiple features on two levels, one above the other, added to the magnitude of every system: an oversized pipe to distribute water uniformly to the waterfall, oversized plates to eliminate danger in water drainage, and additional pumps to move the water to all features at the required speed. For each challenge, Delta Fountains engineered and manufactured the custom solutions needed, and successfully meshed three fountains into one.
We re-designed the fountain so that those walking behind the waterfall would not see the nozzles and light fixtures. The custom-designed nozzles and light fixtures allow multi-colored light illumination at night by incorporating RGB type LED lights that are capable of creating over 16.7 million color choices. We also designed so that those playing in the dancing water on the upper level would not see the custom pumps and systems that move nearly 3,000 gallons of water per minute into three zones of animation. Finally, we designed for those wading in the reflecting pool to not see the deluxe bag filter system that removes debris in seconds or the Ultra Violet System that destroys dangerous microorganisms, two of the many systems super-sized to match the dimensions of the project.
