Architectural Fountain Design & Manufacturing
New York, NY
The reflecting pool outside 388 Greenwich in New York is full of surprises. The building’s chief tenant, Citigroup, commissioned the water feature to be designed with hidden LED lighting and a slow rise-and-fall effect. The fountain was revealed in time for 2017’s President’s Cup.
The water surface tension was the most challenging aspect of the feature. Designers wanted the water to slowly rise and recede without causing surface tension. At the same time, the water needed to cover the middle granite slab and the outside of its 17′ by 30′ oval granite edges without spilling.
Delta Fountains took great measures to make sure these design restraints were met. First, Delta used 3D printing to create a miniature mockup and test different water flows and surface tensions. Then, Delta’s 3D visualizer was called in to create 3D renderings depicting the water flow and surface tension from every angle. Our renders are able to simulate life-size and environmental factors to adjust flow-rate and design, if necessary.
The rendering and resulting time-lapse of the water can be seen below.
The water feature was designed to be minimalistic, so ideally the lighting would be hidden during the day if anyone peeked over the edge of the pool. The design team created a hidden groove into the bottom of the inner granite slab to house Delta’s color-changing LED underwater lighting The groove had to be small enough to stay hidden and to prevent the granite diminishing the LEDs.
