Barcelona comes to Chicago
Once you know that an artist from Barcelona, Jaume Plensa, conceived the fountain, the insouciant people who spout water on their visitors makes sense. In Barcelona and Catalonia, you are immersed in the joy of art and architecture, notably Antoni Gaudí. Sexton and Krueck took Plensa’s sketch and created joy in the Park. Nothing like the Crown Fountain existed before. Every element, from the grid structure, to the optically pure glass bricks curved at the top to make the water course down the sides rather than splash out, to the revolutionary (at that time) digital imaging and the hundreds of video captures of volunteers, was sourced from the collaborative minds of Jaume Plensa, the architects, the engineers, the steel workers, the glass fabricators, the electricians, the videographers, and now the maintenance engineers. And all we need do is visit this wonder and see children and adults splashing and laughing and loving the water spouts to realize how great public art inspires all who embrace it.
