Claire Kahn, Executive Designer Teresa Powell Caldwell, Vice President WET
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Claire Kahn, Executive Designer Teresa Powell Caldwell, Vice President WET www.wetdesign.com WATER’S EDGE: THE CONNECTION BETWEEN URBAN FOUNTAINS AND PEOPLE PRESENTATION SUMMERY: Water design responds to numerous contexts and conditions, bringing people together by creating places for the community to gather and recreate. WET will explore the diverse and original uses of water through the presentation of works by Robert Woodward, Carlo Scarpa, Arthur Erickson and others. WET will present their own work as part of the overall discussion, including the design of water in municipal centers and commercial development, and will show a spectrum of examples of water design, from the central kinetic event to ambient, interwoven works that respond to surrounding architecture and landscape. We will discuss innovation and how water has come to challenge the boundaries of traditional treatments. We will show contemporary water design in a discussion about the uses of water in an environment where fountains are increasingly under scrutiny, often perceived as wasteful and unnecessary and how, through innovative and thoughtful handling, water can continue to provide effective, inventive and vital works that bring collective pleasure to the community. This presentation explores original design in water as it integrates with its surrounding architecture and landscape. While WET is key in the industry for developing cutting edge technical innovation, this presentation will focus on the aesthetics of water design found in the works of selected designers and in the installations and collaborations of WET. LIST OF PROJECTS WET and WET Collaborations: Allied Bank, Fountain Place, with Kiley Walker and Associates, Dallas TX, 1984 Museum Of Modern Art, garden fountain, with Philip Johnson, New York NY 1987 Prometheus Plaza Fountain, Rockefeller Center, with Abe Fader, New York NY, 1988 Fashion Island, with SWA, Newport Beach CA, 1991 Gas Company Tower, with Skidmore Owings and Merrill and Laurie Olin, Los Angeles CA, 1991 California Plaza Water Court, with Arthur Erickson, Los Angeles CA, 1992 Universal City Walk, Universal City CA, 1993 Millennia Walk, with Philip Johnson, Singapore, 1994 Ritz-Carlton, with Roche-Dinkeloo, Singapore, 1994 Pinklao Shopping Center, Bangkok Thailand, 1995 Seattle Center International Fountain, Seattle WA, 1995 McCormick Convention Center, Chicago IL, 1996 Danamon Bank, with Pei, Cobb Freed and Partners, Jakarta Indonesia, 1997 The Fountains of Bellagio, Las Vegas NV, 1998 Carlsbad Premium Outlet, Carlsbad CA, 2000 Midfield Terminal, Detroit Metro Airport, Detroit MI, 2002 Brooklyn Museum, with Polshek Partnership, Brooklyn NY, 2004 The City of Beverly Hills Reverse Osmosis Water Plant, Beverly Hills CA, 2004 Columbus Circle, with The Olin Partnership, New York NY, 2005 Beijing Finance Street, with SWA and Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Beijing China, 2007 Fanfare at San Pedro Gateway, with EDAW, San Pedro CA, 2008 Citycenter, Las Vegas NV (5 Features), 2009 Dubai Fountain, Dubai UAE, 2009 Revson Fountain at Lincoln Center, with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York NY, 2009 Work by Others: SWA / Skidmore Owings and Merrill Weyerhaeuser Headquarters, Tacoma WA, 1971 Pedro Ramirez Vasquez National Anthropology Museum. Mexico City, 1971 Carlo Scarpa Querini Stampalia Foundation, Venice, Italy, 1961 Monument to the Partisan Women, with Augusto Murer, Venice Italy, 1968 Brion Family Cemetery, San Vito d’Altivole, Treviso, Italy, 1969-1978 Arthur Erickson Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, 1965 Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 1971 Provincial Law Courts Robson Square, Vancouver, Canada, 1973 Robert Woodward Alcoa Building Plaza Fountain, with SWA, San Francisco CA, 1964 Darling harbor Spiral Fountain, Sydney Australia, SWA Charlston Park, Mountain View CA, 2000 Le Corbusier Notre Dame de Haut, Ronchamp France, 1955 Antonio Gaudi Park Güell, Barcelona Spain, 1900-1914 Ruth Asawa Buchanan Mall Fountain, San Francisco CA, 1976 SUBJECTS Water in Architecture and Landscape Examples include works by selected designers and architects, landscape architects and WET. Ira Kahn The Edge / Transition An open pool is an aesthetic decision not a default solution: How fountains engage with their surrounding landscape and architecture. Ira Kahn Small Fountains Exterior and Interior fountains that enliven a site. David Sanders Fountains For The Community, The Connection Between Water and People How people interact with fountains in an urban setting. How public and municipal fountains inspire communities in a critical time of water conservation. Ira Kahn Rejuvenation Thoughtfully introducing new ideas and technology to a historical icon. A Presentation of Recent Works by WET A collaboration with EDAW at the LA Harbor, The fountains of Las Vegas including, The Bellagio and Citycenter, A historic renovation at Lincoln Center Center, and the largest fountain in the world. Martn Ledford David Sanders Ira Kahn David Sanders Martin Ledford OUTLINE I. WATER IN ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCSPE The exploration of water design as an integrated and vital part of the site. Examples include: Carlo Scarpa: Querini Stampalia and the Brion Family Cemetery Skidmore Owings and Merrill and SWA: Weyerhaeuser Headquarters Arthur Erickson: Simon Fraser University Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, The Olin Partnership and WET: Gas Company Tower WET: Citycenter, Focus II. THE EDGE / TRANSITION Treatments that challenge conventions about how water meets its surrounding hard-scape. The magic found in the transition. I.M. Pei and Partners, Kiley Walker and Associates and WET: The Allied Bank, Fountain Place Pei Cob Freed and Partners and WET: Danamon Bank Phillip Johnson and WET: Millenia Walk Skidmore Owings and Merrill, SWA and WET: Beijing Finance Street III. SMALL FOUNTAINS Fountains that are tranquil, interior fountains, and playful interactive water expressions for children. Water is a flexible medium. It can express tranquility as a reflective surface or delicately join with its surrounding architecture. Water can be formed into an iconic focal point for the center of a municipality, or be made to move with great force and vibrant kinetics. Designing with small amounts of water - no splash and no overspray - creates delightful and whimsical experiences that are both entertaining and energy efficient. Ruth Asawa : Buchanan Mall Fountain Antonio Gaudi: Park Güell SWA and WET: Fashion Island WET: Pinklao Shopping Center WET: McCormick Convention Center WET: City of Beverly Hills Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant WET: Universal City Walk WET: Citycenter, Halo and Glacia IV. FOUNTAINS FOR THE COMMUNITY Places for people, municipalities and restorations of beloved public fountains. 1. During a time of water conservation at home, communities have a place where they can collectively go to experience the remedial and refreshing qualities of water in an urban environment. Municipal and Public fountains are designed to conserve water responsibly and new technologies and treatments minimize waste. SWA: Charleston Park SWA and Robert Woodward: Alcoa Building Robert Woodward: Darling Harbor EDAW and WET: Fanfare at San Pedro Gateway WET: Detroit Midfield Terminal WET: Citycenter WET: Seattle Center International Fountain Arthur Erickson and WET: California Plaza Water Court Skidmore Owings and Merrill, SWA and WET: Beijing Finance Street 2. Rejuvenating a public fountain that has become a historic icon in the community gives us the opportunity to replace worn units with energy efficient ones. Fountains can be brought back to opening day condition while looking untouched by new technology. Visual modifications can also be made to judiciously change the fountain design in order to fully express its original aesthetic objective. Diller Scofidio Renfro and WET: Lincoln Center The Olin Partnership and WET: Columbus Circle Abe Fader and WET: Prometheus Plaza, Rockefeller Center Philip Johnson and WET: The Museum of Modern Art, New York Polshek Partnership and WET: Brooklyn Museum V. PRIMA DONNA DIVAS, THE BIGGEST FOUNTAINS IN THE WORLD Fast Company named Mark Fuller, WET’s founder and CEO, number 54 of the “100 most creative people in business”, in 2010. They also named WET, one of the “world’s 50 most innovative companies”. I would like to think that the accolades come because of our original thinking and collaborative enthusiasm to create, as a team with others, poetic works where water and architecture seamlessly interweave. As examples will show, they do. WET has also created The Fountains of Bellagio on Las Vegas Boulevard and the Dubai Fountain at the base of the great Burj Khalifa. These and certain other WET water features command attention. They are not yielding to their site, however they are directly informed by their surrounding culture, and program. They connect profoundly with people of all ages and stripes. They are emotionally engaging. Their transition is not water to land, but water to people and to the sky. WET: The Fountains of Bellagio WET: The Dubai Fountain BIOGRAPHIES: Claire Kahn, Executive designer at WET, is responsible for the firm’s design process and philosophy. In her twenty five years with WET Kahn has designed water feature projects for the Los Angeles Music Center; Gas Company Tower in Los Angeles; The Barcelona World Trade Center; Columbus Circle in New York; San Pedro Gateway; The Fountains of Bellagio and selected fountains for City Center in Las Vegas. Prior to joining WET, Kahn worked