| Revson Fountain | |
|---|---|
.jpg) The redesigned fountain in 2015 | |
| Completion date | 6 April 1964[1] 30 September 2009[2] |
| Location | Manhattan, New York City |
| 40°46′20″N 73°59′00″W / 40.772319°N 73.983404°W | |
Revson Fountain is a fountain installed in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The fountain was dedicated in 1964 and a redesign was completed in 2009.
We conceived it as a lighted, glowing, moving feature for the plaza and gave it the focal point a fireplace gives a home.
Philip C. Johnson, architect, quoted in March 7, 1964 New York Times article.[3]
Designed by Philip Johnson Associates, the fountain was dedicated on April 7, 1964.[4] It was originally called the Lincoln Center fountain;[1] its namesake is Charles Revson. The fountain was funded by the Revlon Foundation in 1962.[5]
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the lead architects of the 2006 renovation of Lincoln Center, made several proposals to redesign the fountain, eventually changing the perimeter bench to a floating granite disk; the fountain itself was rebuilt by WET Design from 2007 to 2009.[6] Andrew Dolkart objected to the redesign: "It’s the thing that upsets me most of all about what's happened at Lincoln Center. They thought that they needed to spend a lot of money ripping out Philip Johnson's fountain and putting in something new instead of restoring something that worked well."[7] The rebuilt fountain debuted on September 30, 2009, at a ceremony attended by members of Charles Revson's family.[2]
As originally designed, the fountain employed 568 jets and 88 lights with a combined illumination power of 26 kW. It was 38 feet (12 m) in diameter and was computer controlled, capable of shooting water 150 feet (46 m) in the air.[1] J. S. Hamel of Hamel and Lancer was credited with engineering the fountain. The core of the fountain was an array of 40 jets arranged in a 6-foot (1.8 m) diameter circle around 16 lights capable of throwing water 30 ft (9.1 m) in the air; there were two larger concentric rings with smaller jets outside the core. The total combined flowrate of all the nozzles was 9,000 US gal/min (570 L/s).[3]
The water level of the fountain was elevated from the plaza level in the original design, which used a curb and bench around the perimeter of the retaining pool; during the redesign, the water level was lowered to the level of the plaza and the bench was reduced to a circular rim floating on slim supports. The redesigned fountain contains 353 jets arrayed in three concentric rings and 272 lights with a total illumination power of 27.2 kW.[7] After the redesign, the fountain is capable of shooting water as high as 60 feet (18 m) in the air;[6] 24 pumps move up to 16,500 US gal/min (1,040 L/s).[2]
Revson Fountain has been featured in several notable films set in New York City, including:
In 2017, the water in Revson Fountain was dyed bright yellow during a prank.[9]
