The Buckingham Water Fountain is a famous Chicago landmark located in Grant Park in the middle of a garden. It is one of the largest fountains in the world, measuring 85 m in diameter and it rises 7 ft. The fountain was dedicated in 1927 by Kate Buckingham in memory of her brother Clarence. The fountain used to be known as the
Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain. She had frequently traveled to Europe, where she admired the huge public fountains and wanted to bring some of Europe's monumentality to Chicago. The design of the fountain is based on the 'Bassin de Latone' at the Versailles Palace near Paris and was built by Edward H. Bennett, who had also constructed the Michigan Avenue Bridge. The fountain consists of 3 layers of bassins surrounded by four pairs of bronze seahorses. Each sea horse symbolizes a state bordering Lake Michigan (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin) while the fountain represents the lake itself. The statues were created by the French sculptor Marcel F. Loyau, who won the Prix National at the 1927 Paris Salon for it. Every hour, the fountain has a 20 minute water show, where it begtins with small sprays and ends up the shooting of water 150 ft up in the air.
Above is a picture of the fountain in daylight, shooting water up 150 ft into the air.
The best time to watch the water show would be after 8 pm, when the water fountain displays many differnt colors and music accompanies with it. Below, are pictures of the Buckingham Fountain at night displaying colors.
I chose to the Buckingham Water Fountain in Chicago because as a kid, my family and I used to visit the Fountain at night every time we went to Navy Pier. I used to love to watch the fountain dispplay different colors and thought it was really cool.
