What will be the fate of the Fort Worth Water Gardens?
The Fort Worth Water Gardens were dedicated to the City of Fort Worth by the Amon G. Carter Foundation in 1974. The Water Gardens were designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee and are considered to be a masterpiece of contemporary art. One of the focal points of the Water Gardens is the Active Water Pool area which is located on the east side of the Water Gardens. The Active Water Pool area has as its central feature a large, below grade concrete pool which serves as a collection point for water which is distributed throughout the feature by a recirculation pump system.
In the late afternoon on June 16, 2004, three children and one adult drowned after one of the children apparently unintentionally fell into the Active Pool. The other victims were lost trying to rescue the child. These are the only drownings that have occurred since the opening of the
Water Gardens. The City of Fort Worth has commissioned this study in an effort to identify what safety issues may be posed by the water recirculation system at the Active Water Pool and to identify modifications that could be made to reduce the risk of drowning in the future.
Fort Worth's Garden Report by Freese and Nichols, Inc.
The report continues on with specifics of what and how they tested the pool. They recreated the conditions on the day of the accident. They were able to determine how to prevent any more tragedies in the future. Based on what I read the Water Gardens are old and needed some maintenance and new/updated equipment. It is like someone driving a car around with bad brakes. If you don't maintain your brakes, you could kill yourself and others. If they had maintained the pool, these deaths may have been prevented. Hopefully the Fort Worth City Council will implement the recommendations and keep the pool open. One recommendation was to add an observation deck, but that takes away from the beauty and the “coolness” of the pool
As you can see from the pictures above, you walk down into the pool and the water is rushing all around you. The water is loud and looking up from the bottom is great. I was a little scared to walk down there, but that added to the excitement. Adding to the coolness, this Water Gardens' pool was used in the movie Logan's Run.
If they don’t reopen the pool, I will regret not taking my girls.
1st picture from Fort Worth Star Telegram Archives.
2nd picture from here.
Logan's Run picture from here.
note: originally posted at my old blog: http://procheinamy.blog-city.com
