Waterfront Vancouver’s fountain feature soon to make a splash

A fountain feature at The Waterfront Vancouver designed to mimic the topography of the Columbia River Basin was still damp Wednesday morning with the remnants of a test run.

Though still fenced off, the water feature is almost ready to go — at this point, it’s a matter of Gramor Development securing the piece’s final donors and gifting the water feature to the city, Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle said.

“As soon as you turn that water on, people are going to want to play in it,” she said. “It’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Designed by artist Larry Kirkland, it features a 12-by-16-foot granite monolith mounted with a bronze casting of the region’s topography and engraved with an essay by Teresa Jordan. The piece is also engraved with a quote from naturalist John Muir: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

The monolith towers over a slanted pool and spouts water onto the concrete below, with several spouts that run alongside the pool meant to signify the Columbia River’s tributaries.

It’ll be a prime spot for people to cool their feet and splash around in the summer, but whether the feature will open to the public in time for peak temperatures remains to be seen. Project Director Jim Edwards did not return The Columbian’s request for comment. However, construction workers at the scene Wednesday morning said the fence surrounding the installment will likely come down by July.