Client: Saint Paul Parks and Recreation

Overview

Four fountains with four large bronze bird sculptures located in Upper Landing Park on the Mississippi River in Saint Paul.

Goals

The theme of the design centered around navigation and the river. In addition to being a working river for barges it is also the primary navigation route for North American birds.

Process

Working with Close Landscape Architecture we discovered that the barge traffic on the river uses markers on the banks to time their turns; this became the limestone piers. For the shape of the fountains I threw the original form on the pottery wheel. A section of this form was scanned and sent to the landscape architects who enlarged it to 20 feet in diameter. Then working with Theme Scapes and custom molds the four fountains were cast in a granite aggregate concrete. The fountain engineering was done working with Commercial Aquatic Engineering.

Additional Information

People hug the four large birds. They love them.