Tuesday, March 24 – The Delacorte Fountain was here, The Calatrava Artpiece was not here
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
FROM
THE
ARCHIVE
The project was never completed and Calatrava went on to design projects all over the world.
Built in a park setting the City is most impressive in the brilliant Spanish sunshine.
THE DELACORTE FOUNTAIN
In 1968 Philanthropist George Delacorte announced the donation of a fountain to be placed at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island.The plume of water was to rise 400 feet in the air making it the tallest fountain of its kind in the world.The work was delayed by two years over worries of the river water being polluted and the need for installation of a chlorination plant at the site. River currents also impacted the fountains mechanisms. When the fountain finally was turned on it defoliated the area surrounding it. Some neighbors on Beekman and Sutton Place were so distressed by the unsightly area that they had trees planted around the area. The trees soon died from the water spray. The fountain was turned off in the 1980s and dismantled soon after.
Tomorrow. Photos from inside the Blackwell’s Island Penitentiary by Ben Shahn. Pardon the poor quality, we are working on improvements.
(c) Photos Copyright Harvard University Fogg Museum
Text and Curated by Judith Berdy
Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries
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