ORLANDO – In our periodic search for classics of Florida design and excitement, the Fountain in Lake Eola is among the best loved. While it is out of commission, Disney and the city of Orlando are going to bring it back, reports Orlando’s TV 6.
“Fixing the fountain has proven to be a little more complicated than we thought,” Mayor Dyer said to TV 6 this week.
Jane Jacobs, the greatest writer of America’s cities, extolled the virtues of the fountain in the 1973 book The Exploding Metropolis. She cited in an essay in the book that is an example of how cities can use fountains to make their downtowns more people friendly. Writes Jacobs:
Even more spectacular is the fountain at Orlando.The idea for it occurred to several local business leaders who went to Washington, D.C. convention. They were staying at the Shoreham Hotel and were much impressed by the Shoreham’s fifty-foot illuminated spouts of water. Why not have one for Orlando.
It has to be seen to be believed: the fountain itself rises 18 feet above the lagoon and has seven subfountains around it. All are illuminated in an electrically controlled sequence of colors that lasts 18 minutes. In the center the major fountain spurts form a green-blue Plexiglas dome lighted from within.
