Rotary breaks ground on park fountain
The seed was planted nearly 30 years ago, but it wasn’t until Friday that city and Rotary Club officials broke ground on the Rotary Fountain in Riverfront Park.
Beneath an intermittent drizzle, the group gathered on a three-quarter-acre site that will be transformed into a $1.25 million interactive water fountain and plaza. It is scheduled to open in late May 2005, in time for the Northwest district Rotary conference.
Project designer Bob Perron was among those who watched as the first holes were dug into the cold, wet ground by Mayor Jim West, Dan Cadagan, Rotary Foundation project committee chairman, and other dignitaries. Perron, designer of Riverfront Park, had the vision of an elaborate entrance fountain in 1975.”There was not enough money in the budget then,” Perron said.
Perron, a resident of Portland and architect of that city’s Salmon Street Spring, said the idea resurfaced about 2½ years ago. The Rotary Club wanted to make a major contribution to the city.
The fountain and plaza are being funded by a public-private partnership between the Spokane Park Board and the Downtown Spokane Rotary Club 21. The fundraising has reached 96 percent of the needed amount, thanks to 415 donors, including 31 who each gave more than $5,000.
“This is by far the most significant project we have ever taken on,” Nancy Kennedy, Club 21 president said during the formal ceremony.
The fountain and plaza will bring a radically different look to the entrance of the park. It will cover an area from the Spokane River to Spokane Falls Boulevard on the south border and from the carousel to the “Christmas tree” on the west edge.
Harold Balazs, commissioned as the sculptor, has designed a work that will tell the story of the Spokane Falls and its relationship to native people.
“We were interested in a fountain that reflected in the history of the community,” said Perron, who has worked with Balazs on other architectural projects.
But unlike Perron’s original idea – sculptured children holding hands in water – the flat-deck Rotary Fountain will be run by computer and will be constantly changing. It will have about 140 water jets, sprays, misters, ground hugging fog and other features. It will stand on five stainless columns that are 24 feet high.
The fountain will be open for anyone who wants to play in the water, and will operate from 6 a.m. until midnight from mid-spring to mid-fall, temperature permitting. The fountain may be operated in winter with the mist creating ice formations.
Annual maintenance is estimated between $20,000 and $25,000, Cadagan said. Power alone would cost about $12,000 a year.
Perron said most of the construction is underground piping, which can be done in winter.
“This is going to be one of those things that brings ‘Wow!’ to the city,” West said.