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Trivia on Chicago’s Buckingham Memorial Fountain
Buckingham fountain is one of Chicago’s most popular attractions.
Buckingham fountain, is one of the largest in the world, is located at Columbus Drive 301 East and Congress Parkway 500 South in Grant Park Chicago IL.
In 1927 Kate Buckingham had dedicated the structure to the people of Chicago in memory of her late brother, Clarence. At that time, she also had established a $300,000 trust fund to ensure that the Chicago taxpayers would never have to cover all of the repair and upkeep costs associated with the fountain.
In 1994 the funds for the $2.8 million dollar restoration that was done came from the Buckingham Fountain Endowment Fund, which the Art Institute of Chicago has administered.
On May 26, 1927 Buckingham fountain had opened for the first time.
Architect Edward H. Bennett designed the fountain to represent Lake Michigan with four sea horses, built by Marcel Loyau, to symbolize the four states that line the shores the lake Michigan: Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan. Bennett attributed the design specifically to the influence of the Latona Basin in Louis XIV’s gardens at Versailles.
The fountain times run from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day.
The Fountain operates from mid April to mid October, depending on Chicago’s weather.
20 minutes every hour on the hour the fountain produces a major water display, and the center jet shoots 150 feet up into the Chicago’s sky.
20 minutes beginning at dusk, every hour on the hour the fountain’s major water display is accompanied by a major light and music display. At 10:00 p.m is the final display of the evening.
The fountain is constructed of Georgia pink marble.
The fountain has remained intact until a theft of the two carved fish heads from the fountain were missing, that weighing several pounds each. The fish heads were recovered when a salvage place was offered the pieces, and the buyer thought they looked like something very familiar, and reported them to the Chicago authorities.
The water displays are powered by three pumps: Pump 3: is a 75 horsepower pump that pumps 1,600 gallons of water a minute.
Pump 2: is a 190 horsepower pump that pumps 5,500 gallons of water a minute.
Pump 1: is a 250 horsepower pump that pumps 7,000 gallons of water a minute.
The fountain has 134 jets in the following configurations: 36 jets face up wards from the top basin, including a central jet to produce a 150-foot geyser into the sky.
34 jets at the consoles.
12 jets in the upper trough that arc into the top bowl.
12 jets in the inner trough that arc into the upper trough.
12 jets in the lower trough that arc into the inner trough.
8 jets spout from the sea horses’ mouths.
20 isolated jets.
Buckingham fountain’s water capacity is 1.5 million gallons of water. Depending a pond Chicago’s wind conditions, the major display uses about 14,100 gallons of water per minute dispersed through 134 jets. Water is recirculated from the base pool after the basins are filled and not drawn from the outside except to replace losses from wind splatter and evaporation into the atmosphere.
The bottom pool of the fountain is 280 feet in diameter, the lower basin is 103 feet, the middle basin is 60 feet and the upper basin is 24 feet. The lip of the upper basin is 25 feet above the water in the lower basin.
The size of the underground pump room is 35 feet long, by 25 feet wide, and is 25 feet high.
The LIGHTING
Kate Buckingham envisioned a fountain whose effect was that of “soft moonlight.” She worked many nights with technicians, testing the various colors of the glass filters and currents to produce an ethereal, mystical aura.
The fountain contains 820 lights in the following configurations: 16 in top bowl.
72 in upper trough.
204 in inner trough.
432 in lower trough.
24 in the isolated jets.
60 in the sea horses.
12 in the bulrushes.
The Honeywell Excel Plus computer is located in the fountain’s pump house. During the 1994 renovation the computer was moved to here from Atlanta, Georgia.
The fountain’s alarm, a system similar to a store alarm, is monitored and dispatched through Honeywell Central Station in Arlington Heights IL.
