Alternate url for this page:
http://tinyurl.com/fountainscope

What Is A Historyscope?

Westerners are not only known as history ignoramuses, but double dumbass history ignoramuses when it comes to the history of Fountains. Since I'm the one-and-only Historyscoper (tm), let me quickly bring you up to speed before you dive into my Master Historyscope.

About 3,000 B.C.E. the earliest known fountain is located in Mesopotamia, consisting of a series of basins fed by a natural spring, which is later copied by the Greeks and Romans.

About 500-300 B.C.E. Ancient Greece has a plethora of fountains, esp. near temples, incl. the city of Corinth, known for the white marble Pirene (Peirene) Fountain, along with a bronze fountain of Poseidon standing on a dolphin in Megara, designed by Theagenes, and a fountain in Lerna surrounded by pillars with seating provided, designed by Eupalinus; Athens had many fountains incl. the Fountain of Pan called the Panopos Fountain, with water supplied from natural springs such as Caliroi (the source of the Ilisos River) or Klepsidra, Asklipios, and the Erechtieda Sea; the Enneacrunus Fountain in Athens is called Callirrhoe for the nine pipes that fed it; two temples were above it, according to Pausamas, one dedicated to Demeter and Persephone, and the other to Tiptolemus; the fountain in the Erechtheum (Erechtheion) (-406) on the N side of the Acropolis in Athens is supplied by a spring of salt water, and a similar spring supplies the Temple of Poseidon Hippios in Mantinea.

In 97 C.E. former Roman gov. of Britain Sextus Julius Frontinus (40-103) is made supt. of Roman waterworks, and writes De Aqueductibus Urbis Romae (De Aquaeductu); at this time the length of the nine aqueducts serving Rome is 264 mi., 222 of which are cut beneath the surface; they branch into 247 main reservoirs, serving 744 points of distribution within the city (591 public fountains, 95 baths, 58 barracks and theaters); total output: 330M gal. of water per day for 1M sweet-smelling people wiping their butts with sponges on sticks; too bad, they line the pipes with lead, leading to sterility et al., dooming the Romans?

In 652 C.E. the 177-ft. (54m) Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in Ch'ang-an (X'ian, Shaanxi), China is built; 50 years later it collapses, and Empress Wu Zetian has it rebuilt with five new stories in 704; in ? a Musical Fountain opens, featuring 1,024 water nozzles synchronized to music and light; watch video.

In 1499 Italian Dominican priest-monk Francesco Colonna (1433-1527) writes the romance The Dream of Poliphilus (Hypnerotomachia Poliphili) (Gk. "hypnos" + "eros" + "mache" = sleep + love + fight) (Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream) (incunable) (Venice), which describes a mythical world filled with fountains where Poliphilo pursues his love Polia, finally getting a kiss by the Fountain of Venus, only to wake up from his dream, causing grand fountains to become a rage in Italy in the 16th-17th cents.

In 1546 Henry VIII founds Trinity College at Cambridge U., which goes onto become the largest Oxbridge college; grads later incl. Isaac Newton, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Adam Sedgwick, Lord Byron, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Bertand Russell, James Clerk Maxwell, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, and Ludwig Wittgenstein; in 1599-1608 a fountain is built in the Great Court.

In 1547-9 after being hired to redesign the future Lescot wing of the Palais du Louvre, the French Renaissance (recycled Italian Modernism) Fontaine des Innocents (Nymphes) is built in Paris by architect Pierre Lescot (1515-78) and sculptor Jean Goujon (1510-68) to celebrate the royal entry of Henry II, becoming the earliest monumental fountain in Paris.

In July 1560 Villa d'Este on Lake Como in Tivoli (near Rome), Italy, commissioned by Cardinal (since 1538) Ippolito II d'Este (1509-7) (son of Lucrezia Borgia) and designed by architects Alberto Galvani and Pirro Ligorio (1512-83) is begun (finished 1575), developing the finest Renaissance garden in Italy AKA Tivoli Gardens; it becomes known for its 500 beautiful fountains incl. a Neptune water organ fountain, Fountain of Venus, and the Oval Fountain; too bad, d'Este loots the nearby 2nd cent. C.E. Hadrian's Villa for marbles and statues for his super villa, and never makes pope; watch video; watch video; watch video; watch video; watch video.

In 1565 the 4.2m-tall Fountain of Neptune in Florence, Italy, designed by Baccio Bandinelli after being commissioned in 1559 by Cosimo I de' Medici is finished in time for the wedding of Francesco de' Medici to Grand Duchess Johanna of Austria; too bad, the local pop. thinks that it stinks, and nickname it "Il Biancone" (the White Giant); a fountain is completed by 1575; on Aug. 4, 2005 three vandals cut of one of Neptune's hands holding a trident; it is restored in 2007.

In 1588 the Residenzplatz in Salzburg, Austria is begun on the cemetery of the old monastery N of Salzburg Cathedral, starting with the Renaissance Neue Residenz, featuring a prominent bell tower, becoming the home of the prince-archbishops of Salzburg; in 1656-61 the Baroque Untersberg limestone Residenzbrunnen fountain is built, designed by Tommaso di Garona and topped by a statue of Triton modeled after the Triton Fountain in Rome, becoming the largest Baroque fountain in Europe.

In 1602 Henry IV of France has Leochares' 325 B.C.E. Statue of Diana (Artemis) removed from Fontainebleau and mounted in a special gallery in the Palais du Louvre, then has Barthelemy Prieur cast a bronze replica and set it upon a high Mannerist marble pedestal, which is turned into a fountain by hydraulics engineer Tommaso Francini in 1603, featuring bronze hunting dogs pissing water and stag heads spitting water, sculpted by Pierre Biard, and located in the Jardin de la Reine in a parterre surrounded by an orangery.

In 1612 the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola (AKA Il Fantanone = the big fountain) on the Janiculum Hill near the Church of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome is built to mark the end of the Acqua Paola aqueduct restored by Pope Paul V, becoming the first major fountain on the right bank of the Tiber River.

In 1618-9 the bronze Manneken Pis (Dutch "Little Pissing Man") Fountain in Brussels is designed by Jerome Duquesnoy the Elder, becoming the symbol of Brussels; in 1965 it is switched with a replica so it can be kept safe in the city museum.

In 1642-3 the travertine Triton Fountain (Fontana del Tritone) in the Piazza Barberini in Rome is built by Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini for his patron Pope Urban VIII; not to be confused with the nearby Fountain of the Tritons in Piazza Bocca della Verita by Carlo Francesco Bizzaccheri.

In 1653 after Girolami Rainaldi and his son Carlo Rainaldi begin it and begin quarreling, Gianlorenzo Bernini's rival Francesco Borromini (1599-1667) designs Sant'Agnese in Agone (Piazza Navona) Church in Piazza Navona (Agone), Rome, dedicated to St. Agnes, who died there in 304 C.E.; the Aswan granite Fountain of the Rivers (Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi) in front of Pope Innocent X's Palazzo Pamphili and Sant'Agnese in Agone, designed by Bernini features statues of river gods Nile and Ganges, allegedly shielding their eyes from the ugliness of the church, after which Borromini adds a statue of St. Agnes to the facade of his church, pretending to gaze past the fountain?; as the fountain is started during a famine in 1646, the public is vocally against it and on the verge of riot, but when it is unveiled on June 12, 1651 its size and beauty overwhelm them with pride and wonder.

In 1670 the Latona Fountain between the Chateau de Versailles and Grand Canal in France is begun by Andre Le Notre, and enlarged in 1686 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart after statuary is added in 1667 by brothers Gaspard and Balthzard Marsy, topped by a statue of the goddess Latona, mother of the Sun god Apollo and Moon gods.

In 1682 William Penn builds Franklin Square (originally North East Publick Square) in Philadelphia, Penn. as one of five open-space parks; renamed in 1825 in honor of Benjamin Franklin; in 1838 Franklin Square Fountain is built, fed by water from the Schuykill River.

In 1696 the 70.5m-tall Hercules Monument in Kassel, N Hesse, Germany is begun by Landgrave Karl of Hesse-Kassel, with a pyramid on top of an octagon topped by a copper statue of Hercules (Heracles), built in 1707-17; on June 3, 1714 the water stairs (cascade) debut.

On May 1, 1703 the Russians take Nienshanz Fortress at the mouth of the Neva River, and drive the Swedes from the Neva Delta, then seize Noteburg and rename it Schlusselburg; on May 16 Tsar (1682-1721) Peter I the Great (1672-1725) pissed-off at his Moscow nobles failing to become kulturny and adopt Western culture, officially founds St. Petersburg (modern-day pop. 5.3M) on the banks of the Neva River on territory he just took from Sweden as Russia's "Window on the West" (modern pop. 4.7M), using serfs as expendable slaves; "A giant built it; lacking stones/ "He paved the swamps with human bones" (Mikhail Dmitriev); Peter I builds the Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul on a small island in the river on May 27, 1703-1740, designed by Swiss Italian architect Domenico Trezzini (1670-1734), who goes on to design Kronstadt (1704) on Kotlin Island 19 mi. W of St. Petersburg, St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral (1712-33) (world's tallest Orthodox Catholic bell tower), Peter the Great's Summer House (1710-14), the Alexander Nevsky Monastery (1710-13), the Winter Palace (1711-53), and the Twelve Collegia (Colleges) Bldg. Complex (1722-44) (main bldg. of St. Petersburg U.), founding Petrine Baroque, which departs from the Naryshin Baroque of Moscow and follows the Dutch, Danish, and Swedish (Flemish Renassance) styles; in 1709 Peter I begins the Peterhof Palace (Dutch "Piterhof" = Peter's Court), an attempt to ape Louis XIV's Versailles Palace, causing it to become known as "the Russian Versailles", with Domenico Trezzini as the main architect in 1714, succeeded in 1716 by Paris-born Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond (1679-1719) (Blond, James-Baptiste Blond)?, with his teacher, Versailles landscaper Andre (André) Le Notre (Nostre) (1613-1700) hired to design the gardens; the Grand Cascade of 64 fountains, modelled on Louis XIV's Chateau de Marly features the Samson Fountain (1736), with a 66-ft.-high water jet, which is upgraded in 1800-2 by local Russian Neoclassical sculptor Mikhail Ivanovich Kozlovsky (1753-1802), a gilt bronze statue of Greek god Samson tearing open the jaws of a lion to represent Russia's big V over Sweden in the Great Northern War (1700-21), with the lion representing Sweden's coat of arms, and Samson representing Russia's big V on St. Sampson's Day; in 1747-56 Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700-71) is hired by Tsarina Elisabeth to design an expansion along with the Winter Palace; Trezzini's architect son Pietro has Peter I the Great as a godfather; this year 8-y.-o. black African slave Abraham (Ibrahim) Petrovich Gannibal (Hannibal) (1696-1781), who claims he was kidnapped from a royal tribal family in Africa is presented by a Russian diplomat as a gift to Peter I the Great, becoming his adopted son, and rising quickly to a 5-language linguist, civil engineer, diplomat, and gen. (Europe's first black intellectual?) - so cute everybody should own one?

In 1710 as part of the rebuilding of Dresden after the 1685 fire, German Baroque sculptor Balthasar Permoser (1651-1732) and German architect Matthaus Daniel Poppelmann (Pöppelmann) (1662-1736) design the Zwinger Palace in Dresden for Augustus II the Strong of Saxony (finished 1728), featuring the Nymphenbad Fountain and the Wallpavilion, with sculptures by Permoser.

In 1762 86 ft. x 161.3 ft. Trevi Fountain in Palazzo Poli in Trevi, Rome at the junction of three roads (It. "tre vie") of the ancient Aqua Virgo is completed, designed by Nicola Salvi and completed by Pietro Bracci, becoming the largest Baroque fountain in Rome; barrels of water from it are sent across the Tiber River to the Vatican for cents.; people begin throwing coins into it, which are collected and given to charity; the belief is that one day they will be granted a safe return; later featured in several films incl. "Roman Holiday" (1953), "Three Coins in the Fountain" (1954), and "La Dolce Vita" (1960); refurbished in 1998; watch video; watch video.

In 1872 Nantes-born French sculptor Charles-Auguste Lebourg (1829-1906) begins sculpting 100+ small cast-iron Wallace Fountains (drinking fountains), financed by English art collector Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet (1818-90), which are sited throughout Paris on the busiest sidewalks and give Paris its character, also in Lisburn.

In 1886 the Jet d'Eau fountain in Lake Geneva, Switzerland begins as a relief valve in the Rhone River for a hydraulic power network, shooting water 98 ft. high and becoming a tourist attraction, causing it to be moved to the lake and opened on Aug. 25, 1891 on the 600th anniv. of the Swiss Confederation, shooting water 295 ft. high; in 1951 it swtiches from city water to lake water.

On Apr. 8-Dec. 9, 1888 the 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition in Barcelona N of Valencia, home of the Catalan dialect on land formerly occupied by the hated Fortress of Barcelona, becomes Spain's first internat. world's fair, modernizing the city complete with the 70-acre Parc de la Ciutadella (Citadel Park), which incl. a zoo and waterfall (cascada) modelled on the Trevi Fountain in Rome, featuring a statue of Venus standing on a clam - bo?

On May 8-Nov., 1888 the 1888 Internat. Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry in Glasgow, Scotland is attended by 5,748,379, becoming the largest exhibition held outside London and largest held in Scotland in the 19th cent.; the 46-ft. Doulton Fountain, deisgned by architect Arthur E. Pearece is donated by pottery manufacturer Sir Henry Doulton (1820-97), featuring a larger-than-life statue of Queen Victoria surrounding by water-carriers representing Australia, Canada, India, and South Africa; it is moved to Glasgow Green in 1890; in 1891 lightning destroys Victoria's statue, and Doulton pays for a replacement; in 2002 after it is allowed to deteriorate, £2M is donated to restore it.

In 1893 the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain (begun 1885) by London-born English New Sculpture Movement sculptor Sir Alfred Gilbert (1854-1934) in Piccadilly Circus, London is unveiled, crowned with the aluminum statue of Anteros, which he calls "the Angel of Christian Charity", but is popularly known as Eros, becoming the world's first aluminum statue. In 1926-32 he sculpts the Art Nouveau bronze Queen Alexandra Memorial for Marlborough Road in London, commemorating Queen Alexandra of Denmark.

In 1903 Elmwood, Ill.-born sculptor Lorado Zadok Taft (1860-1936) pub. The History of American Sculpture, first-ever; the 1925 rev. version becomes a std. reference until Wayne Craven's "Sculpture in America" (1968); he follows with Modern Tendencies in Sculpture (1921). In 1909 he sculpts Eternal Silence (Statue of Death) (Dexter Graves Monument) (Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, Ill.) (Dexter Graves (-1844), who led a group of 13 settlers from Ohio in 1831 to Chicago), followed by Thatcher Memorial Fountain (1918) (City Park, Denver, Colo.) (wealthy Denver businessman Joseph Addison Thatcher (-1918), showing the State of Colorado surrounded by three groups representing Loyalty, Love, and Learning, followed by Fountain of Time (1920-22) (Midway Plaisance, Chicago, Ill.), followed by The Recording Angel (1923), Fountain of Creation (unfinished) (1923) (U. of Ill. Library) (planned to complement "Fountain of Time"), Lincoln the Lawyer (1929), and The Patriots (1932) (La. State Capitol, Baton Rouge).

In 1917 Blainville-Crevon, France-born French Cubist/Dada sculptor-painter Henri Robert Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) sculpts Fountain, a "ready-to-wear" porcelain urinal signed "R. Mutt"; the most influential art work of the 20th cent.?

In 1921 1,077-acre Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Penn., which began as a 402-acre farm purchased in 1700 by Quaker farmer George Peirce, then a 15-acre arboretum built by his great-grandsons Samuel and Joshua Peirce, then purchased on July 20, 1906 by philanthropist Pierre S. du Pont opens to the public, consisting of 20 indoor horticultural display gardens inside a 4.5 acre group of heated greenhouses containing 4.6K different types of plants and trees, and the Main Fountain Garden (1931) incl. the Round Fountain and the Italian Water Garden, built in 1925-7, modelled on Villa Gamberaia near Florence, Italy; since 2012 it attracts 1M+ visitors/year.

On Aug. 26, 1927 the $750K rococo wedding cake style Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park in Chicago., Ill. is dedicated, donated by grain elevator heir and philanthropist Kate Sturges Buckingham (1858-1937) in honor of her brother Clarence, inspired by the Latona Fountain in the Palace of Versailles, becoming one of the world's largest fountains, featuring Apr.-Oct. water shows during the days and color-light shows in the eves.

On May 20, 1929 the 130M peseta 1929 Barcelona Internat./Universal Exposition (AKA Expo 1929) in Monjuic Hill overlooking the harbor SW of the city center of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain sees 20 Euro nations partcipate, along with the U.S. and some Latin Am. countries; it closes on Jan. 30; on May 19 the Magic Fountain of Monjuic in Barcelona, Spain below the Palau Nacional opens, designed by Catalan architect Carles Buigas (Buïgas) i Sans (1898-1979), consisting of 3,620 jets that spout water up to 170 ft.; in 1980s music is incorporated in the light-water show; Aachen, Prussia-born German-Am. architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Maria Ludwig Michael Mies) (1886-1969) and German modernist Lilly Reich (1885-1974) design the minimalist "free plan" Barcelona (German) Pavilion, known for its many highly reflective surfaces and indoor-outdoor reflective pools, and furnished with the Barcelona Chair; it is torn down shortly after it is built, becoming modern architecture's holy of holies from photos and plans alone; watch video.

On Mar. 14, 1932 the J.F. Archibald Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park, Sydney, Australia is unveiled by Samuel Walder, lord mayor of Sydney, commemorating the partnership between Australia and France in WWI and named for benefactor J.F. Archibald, owner of The Bulletin mag.; the artist Francois-Leon Sicard completed it in Paris in 1926, depicting a bronze Apollo surrounded by mythical figures.

In 1954 the Friendship of the Peoples Fountain opens in Moscow, designed by K. Topuridze and G. Konstantinovsky, featuring 16 gold sculptures representing the republics of the Soviet Union.

In 1954 the Stone Flower Fountain in the Industrial Square of the Exhibition of Economic Achievements in Moscow is built, named after the Pavel Bazhov fairy tale, designed by architect Konstantin Topuridze, and decorated with birds, fruit, and ears carved by Prokopy Dobrynin, becoming the first light-music fountain in the Soviet Union, with music created by Dmitri Shostakovich.

On June 15, 1960 Billy Wilder's The Apartment (The Mirisch Co.) (United Artists) debuts, a classic film about the price paid to climb the corporate ladder, starring Jack Lemmon as lowly insurance clerk C.C. "Bud" Baxter, who loans his apt. to his bosses, then learns that Mr. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) is using it for an affair with his dream girl Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine); does $24.6M box office on a $3M budget; the first million-selling movie theme hit for the Juilliard-trained Am. pianists Arthur Ferrante (1921-2009) and Louis Milton Teicher (1924-2008), who follow it with "The Apartment" (1960), "Tonight" (1961), and "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), causing them to become known as "the Movie Theme Team"; features a magical floating water tap, a home decoration that catches on and ends up duplicated on a large scale around the world incl. Menorca, Spain; watch video; watch video; watch video.

In 1961 the Modernist bronze-brass El Alamein Memorial (Kings Cross) Fountain in Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia is officially opened by Harry Jensen, lord mayor of Sydney, commemorating the two battles of El Alamein in July and Nov. 1942 by the Australian 9th Div., designed by veteran Robert Raymond "Bob" Woodward (1923-2010), resembling a dandelion.

In 1963 the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Fountain in Ancient Siam (Ancient City) (Mueang Boran), Thailand opens, becoming the world's largest outdoor museum, featuring 116 monuments and architectural attractions.

On Apr. 22, 1964 Pres. Johnson opens the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, N.Y. (ends Oct. 17, then reopens on Apr. 21-Oct. 17, 1965), while Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) protesters try to drown him out; the theme is "Peace Through Understanding", dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe"; being within 10 years of the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, some countries bug out, saving up for Expo 67 in Montreal, and the Bureau of Internat. Expositions refuses to sanction it, further diminishing the power of N.Y. planning czar Robert Moses; it features 140+ pavilions for 80 nations, hosted by 37 nations, plus 24 U.S. states, and 45 corporations, incl. the futuristic 140-ft.-high 120-ft.-diam. 350 ton Unisphere fountain by U.S. Steel, and a house made of formica; the Ma Bell pavilion features a picture phone; the IBM pavilion hosts a multimedia show of how a computer works, and coins the term "word processing"; the It's A Small World (After All) exhibit by Disney is a hit, along with an audio-animatronic Abraham Lincoln in the Ill. Pavilion, both moved later to Disneyland; the strawberry and whipped cream "Bel-Gem" Belgian waffle is a hit; sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov (1920-92) pub. an article on the 2014 World's Fair, with the soundbytes: "Robots will neither be common nor very good in 2014, but they will be in existence", "Communications will become sight-sound and you will see as well as hear the person you telephone. The screen can be used not only to see the people you call but also for studying documents and photographs and reading passages from books"; "In 2014, there is every likelihood that the world population will be 6,500,000,000 and the population of the United States will be 350,000,000"; "A larger portion [of the U.S.] than today will be deprived and although they may be better off, materially, than today, they will be further behind when compared with the advanced portions of the world. They will have moved backward, relatively"; "General Electric at the 2014 World's Fair will be showing 3-D movies of its 'Robot of the Future,' neat and streamlined, its cleaning appliances built in and performing all tasks briskly. (There will be a three-hour wait in line to see the film, for some things never change.)"; watch video; watch video.

In 1967 the Nat. Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Mesa Lab Bldg. in Boulder, Colo. (begun 1961) is completed, making a star of Guangzhou, China-born architect Ieoh Ming "I.M." Pei (1917-2019); situated in the foothills, you can walk out the door and greet deer. On Oct. 15, 1988 the Glass Pyramid over the new entrance in the main court of the Louvre in Paris, designed by architect I.M. Pei is inaugurated, featuring the Fontaine de la Pyramide in Cour Napoleon I of the Louvre; in 1993 his La Pyramide Inversee (Inversée) (the Inverted Pyramid) in the Carrousel du Louvre shopping mall in front of the Louvre is completed, causing speculation by Dan Brown et al. that the two pyramids represent the body of Mary Magdalene, or the Rosicrucian motto VITRIOL (Visita Interiorem Terrae Rectificandoque Invenies Occultum Lapidem) (Visit the interior of the Earth and you will find the secret stone).

In 1969 the bronze sculptural fountain installation La Joute (Fr. "The Joust"), designed by artist Jean-Paul Riopelle is opened in the Parc Olympique in Montreal; in 2003 it is relocated to the Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle; watch video.

On Mar. 15, 1970 Expo 70 (Japan World Exposition) in the Senri Hills outside Osak) opens (until Sept. 13), becoming Japan's first world fair, with the motto: "Progress and Harmony for Mankind"; the U.S. pavilion, designed by David Geiger features the largest, lightest clear-span, air-supported roof ever built, an features a display of moon rocks from Apollo 12; "Tiger Child", the first-ever IMAX film debuts; the Nine Floating Fountains are designed by Isamu Noguchi.

In 1970 Keller Fountain Park (originally Forecourt Fountain) in downtown Portland, Ore. across from the Civic Auditorium on land formerly occupied by Dot Tavern owned by future mayor (1985-92) Bud Clark opens, named after Portland Development Commission head (1958-72) Ira C. Keller, featuring a concrete water fountain designed by Angela Danadjieva modelled after waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge to the E.

On Apr. 21, 1971 the 40-ft.-high modernist Vaillancourt Fountain AKA Quebec libre! in Embarcadero Plaza, San Francisco, Calif. is unveiled, designed by Quebecois artist Armand J.R. Vaillancourt (1929-), consisting of precast concrete tubes, which is so ugly that several unsuccessful attempts are made to demolish it; in 1987 U2 gives a free concert there, and lead singer Bono sprays graffiti on it; watch video.

On June 25, 1982 the 1,495m girder Banpo Bridge over the Han River in Seoul, South Korea is completed, riding on top of Jamsu Bridge, becoming the first double-deck bridge in South Korea; in Sept. 2009 the Moonlight Rainbow Fountain opens, becoming the world's longest bridge fountain, with a world record 380 10K LED nozzles running along both sides, shooting 190 tons of water/min.to a horizontal distance of 43m; watch video.

In 1983 the steel-plastic Stravinsky Fountain near the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France opens, featuring 16 sculptures illustrating the works of composer Igor Stravinsky, designed by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle; watch video.

In 1984 the Mustangs of Las Colinas bronze sculpture in Williams Square, Las Colinas, Irving, Tex. by sculptor Robert Glen (commissioned in 1976) opens, featuring nine wild mustangs splashing through fountains.

In 1985 the King Fahd's (Jeddah) Fountain in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is unveiled, featuring a 1,024-ft.-high water jet supplied by the Red Sea, becoming the tallest fountain jet on Earth., with 500+ spotlights illuminating it at night.

In 1988 the 80-ft.-high stone-paved tiered circular pyramid Yabba-Dabba-Doo Flintstone-wannabe Volcano Fountain (Arab. "Al Shallal") on the corniche in Yabba Dabba Abu Dhabi opens, modelled after one built in Honolulu Internat. Airport in the 1960s, and one at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev.; too bad, in Oct. 2004 it is demolished to make way for a redevelopment project; watch video.

In 1990 8-acre Waterfront Park on the Cooper River in Charleston, S.C. opens, designed by Stuart O. Dawson, featuring the Pineapple Fountain.

In 1993 the $300M Luxor Hotel-Casino (Oct. 15) and $1B MGM Grand Hotel-Casino (Dec. 15) in Las Vegas, Nev. open, starting a fad which results in the $460M New York, New York on Jan. 3, 1997, the $1.6B Bellagio on Oct. 15, 1998 (on the site of the Dunes Hotel and Casino, inspired by the Lake Como resort in Bellagio, Italy), the $950M Mandalay Bay (opens Mar. 2, 1999), and the $1.5B Venetian Las Vegas on May 3, 1999 (on the site of the Sands Hotel and Casino, funded by Sheldon Adelson), the $268M Palms Casino Resort on Nov. 15, 2001, the $2.7B Wynn Las Vegas on Apr. 28, 2005, and the $925M Red Rock Casino Resort on Apr. 18, 2006; the $40M Bellagio Fountains shoot 460 ft. into the air and feature a synchronized light-water-music show; watch video.

In 1995 the Fountain of Wealth in Suntec City in Singapore opens, becoming the world's largest fountain (until ?), with a bronze ring representing the Hindu Mandala symbol of universal harmony; the main fountain is turned off several times a day to permit visitors to walk around the central base 3x for good luck and retrieve coins; at night laser music-light-water shows are staged; the fountain is ringed by a shopping mall; watch video; fountain of wealth.

In 1995 the 24m-high Nacka Fountain in Stockholm, Sweden opens, designed by Uppsala-born Swedish-Am. sculptor Carl Milles (Carl Wilhelm Emil Andersson) (1875-1955) and copied by his asst. Marshall M. Fredericks, with the title "God, Our Father, on the Rainbow", celebrating the founding of the United Nations.

In 1995 the Swarovski Crystal Worlds (Kristallwelten) theme park in Wattens (near Innsbruck), Austria is opened by Austrian crystal glass manufacturer Swarovski to celebrate its 100th anniv., featuring the Swarovski Fountain, consisting of a glass-covered head with a mouth spouting water; watch video.

In 1996 the Rising Universe (Shelley) Fountain (originally Cosmic Cycle Water Sculpture) in Horsham, West Sussex, England is unveiled, designed by sculptor Angela Conner to commemorate the 200th anniv. of the birth of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; in 2006 it is switched off, and in June 2016 it is dismantled and removed after an 86% vote; watch video.

In 2000 the Charybdis Vortex Fountain by water sculptor William Pye opens in the Seaham Hotel and Spa near Sunderland, Northern England, based on the myth of the siren in Homer's "Odyssey" who was hit by a thunderbolt from Zeus that transformed her into a whirlpool as punishment for stealing oxen from Hercules; he later builds similar sculptors in Oman and Campinas, Brazil; watch video.

On Nov. 6, 2002 the 3m-tall bronze Rainman (L'Uomo della Pioggia) Fountain debuts in Florence, Italy for the Florence Social Forum, designed by artist Jean-Michel Folon; too bad, its location on a roundabout in front of Obihall Theater makes it a target for motorists, and it is damaged in 2015 and 2017.

On July 6, 2004 the £3.6M Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain at the SW corner of Hyde Park S of the Serpentine Lake in London, England opens, featuring 545 pieces of Cornish granite arranged in 165 ft. x 260 ft. x 20 ft. stream bed surrounded by a lush grassy field; watch video.

In July 2004 $17M Crown Fountain opens in Millennium Park in Chicago, Ill., designed by Catalan artist Jaume Piensa, consisting of a black granite reflecting pool between a pair of 50' glass brick towers covered with LEDS that display digital videos incl. waterfalls and 1K+ Chicago residents who puff their cheeks as a stream of water shoots out of their mouths; watch video.

In 2004 the Tornado Musical Fountain opens in Europa Park in Rust, Germany, later moved to the Colosseo Hotel; more are installed at Futuroscope in Poitiers (2011), Sharjah, UAE, Wetzlar, Germany, Tbilisi, Georgia, Ningbo, China, and Busan, South Korea, which becomes the world's largest indoor water show.

In 2006 the Big Giving Fountain in South Bank, Central London opens, designed by Klaus Weber, consisting of six industrial waste human sculptures with water spurting from various orifices; it is soon dismantled.

In 2007 the Magic Water Circuit in Lima, Peru opens, consisting of 13 illuminated fountains, becoming the largest fountain complex on Earth; the fountains incl. the $13M Tunnel of Surprises, the Maze of the Dream, the Fountain of Harmony, the Rainbow Fountain, the Fountain of Illusion, the Walk-in Dome, the Fountain of Life, the Magic Fountain, and the Fountain of Fantasy; watch video; watch video; watch video.

In 2007 the 24-ton 40-ft.Julie Penrose Fountain in Am. the Beautiful Park in Colo. Springs, Colo. opens, designed by David Barber and Bill Burgess, consisting of an open loop of silver-colored panels containing 366 water jets, all sitting on a hidden turntable that rotates at 4 rph.

On May 8, 2009 the $218M Dubai Fountain on manmade Burj Khalifa Lake in Dubai, UAE opens. shooting water 500 ft. into the air while being illuminated by 6.6K lights and 50 colored projectors and accompanied by music; watch video; watch video.

In 2009 the 24m-tall 4-floor Dubai Divers Fountain in Dubai Mall features fiberglass divers; watch video.

In 2009 the 100m x 5 m Toilet Bowl Waterfall (Fountain) in Shiwan Park in Foshan, Guangdong Provice, South China opens, designed by Shu Yong, consisting of 10K recycled toilets and urinals; watch video.

On June 21, 2011 the 80-ft.-tall bronze Alexander the Great Fountain in Skopje, Macedonia is unveiled, becoming the largest Alexander the Great Statue on Earth (until ?); watch video.

On May 31, 2012 the Aquanura Fountain in the Efteling Theme Park in the Netherlands opens, becoming the largest fountain in Europe and the 3rd largest on Earth after the Dubai Fountain and the Bellagio Fountains; it consists of 200 fountains subdivided into 9 types along with four large water-spouting frogs; watch video.

In Apr. 2013 the Osaka City Station Water Fountain in Japan opens, consisting of a large rectangular water fountain with a digital water droplet printer that displays a digital time readout along with falling floral and other shapes; watch video.

On Sept. 24, 2016 Pres. Obama dedicates the Smithsonian Institution's Nat. Museum of African Am. History and Culture on the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C. (opened Dec. 19, 2003), featuring the Contemplative Court, complete with a cylindrical fountain raining down from a skylight to the center of the room.