The Clarence Buckingham Fountain
Buckingham Fountain is Grant Park's focal point, and like the park, is modeled on French prototypes. It was commissioned in 1927 by Kate Buckingham to honor her late brother Clarence, a trustee of the Art Institute, but also to bring European monumentality to Chicago. Dramatically situated at the eastern terminus of Congress Parkway and along a north-south axis of formal rose gardens and stately elms, the fountain lies in a scalloped-edge pool 280 feet across, surrounded by four pairs of bronze sea creatures spouting water. Its three tiers of pink marble basins, rising 25 feet above ground level, are supported on the lower levels by brackets ornamented with carved seaweed and jet-equipped saucers; the topmost basin rests on a central pedestal ringed by eight square columns. The design, an Art Deco re-interpretation of Versailles_ Bassin de Latone, won French sculptor M.F. Loyau the Prix National at the 1927 Paris Salon. Its symbolism, however, is wholly native: the base pool represents Lake Michigan, while its bronze inhabitants symbolize the bordering states. The water-jets and color spotlights, originally choreographed by hand from an underground control room, were computerized by Harry Weese Associates as part of a major 1995 renovation.
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