Inverted Fountain (Los Angeles, California) | water

USA / California / Westwood / Los Angeles, California
 water, fountain
UCLA’s unconventional fountain started off in a ordinary way. It would be shooting water skyward.
Chancellor Franklin Murphy had aother idea.
He challenged UCLA’s architectural landscape team to do something other than “squirt water into the air.”
Howard Troller, the Inverted Fountain’s principal designer, turned to a childhood memory — an image of Yellowstone’s bubbling mud pots and hot springs — which left a lasting impression. He had been looking to portray that natural landscape in a modern representation and now had the opportunity.
On 18 March 1968 Troller’s vision was complete. Unlike more traditional fountains, the water of the Inverted Fountain flows inward across a bed of mutli-colored stones, handpicked by Troller in Claremont. The current then meets at an off-center well, creating a miniature waterfall plunging into a 12-foot wide, 5-foot deep center that recirculates the water at 10,000 gallons per minute. The water’s movement adds a natural, yet distinctive, sound to this part of the of campus – the sound of a flowing mountain stream.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   34°4'12"N   118°26'26"W

Comments

  • This is one of the most fun places on campus. The desiner was concerned about getting the students wet when the wind blew. The fountain is a big circle with a high curb running around it. inside the curb water wells up and runs down to a whole in the center over river rocks. It sounds like a mountain stream and on hot days sitting inside is very refreshing.
  • The inverted fountain is one of the unique fountains you will see. The story they tell students during orientation (in order for the students to guess which ones are right and wrong among many stories told), is that the designer of the fountain is the usc graduate who purposely made the hole off centered. If you look from the North to South side, there's a rectangular shaped building behind the fountain. They say he made it look like a toilet on purpose as one can imagine the fountain being the toilet and the background building being the rectangular box behind toilets. However, this is only a fake story, as the designer who designed this fountain also designed the sculpture garden, the bruin walk and the bruin plaza. Salty is right. He was concerned about wind blowing water onto unsuspecting students so he made it inverted instead.
This article was last modified 17 years ago