Buckingham Memorial Fountain, Chicago, Illinois, Elevation

Architect Edward Bennett, co-author of the 1909 Plan of Chicago, continued to imagine the potential of the unfinished Grant Park into the 1920s. One of the plan’s centerpieces was a monumental fountain on axis with Congress Parkway. With the support of philanthropist Kate Sturges Buckingham, Bennett designed a fountain modeled on one in the royal gardens of Versailles, at twice the size. Complete with four neoclassical sea horses symbolizing the four states bordering Lake Michigan, the fountain features colored light displays and high-tech pumps that draw water from the nearby harbor. The fountain was celebrated by contemporary critics for continuing the Plan of Chicago’s vision of a great urban center with a carefully framed and technologically perfected version of nature.