Millennium Park's Crown Fountain Returns On Saturday With Improved Giant-Face Technology

By Stephen Gossett in News on Apr 21, 2017 8:13PM

Crown Fountain / Getty Images / Photo: Scott Olson

Like it's neighbor The Bean, Crown Fountain has long since won over a skeptical audience and graduated from local curiosity to downtown icon. But after more than a decade of puzzling tourists with its massive alternating face displays and strategically placed spigots, the public-art fave was in need of an (ahem) facelift. After extensive upgrades, Crown Fountain will finally stare us down again when it opens on Saturday.

The interactive Jaume Plensa-designed video sculpture was out of commission over the winter months as it underwent a $3.7 million tinker. The renovation brings more vivid, eco-conscious LED screens, new "pavers" along the pool bed and new replacement glass bricks for the display, according to the Tribune. Sounds like we'll be getting spit on style.

The 50-foot glass-brick towers—which were draped and obscured at times during renovation—debuted in 2004 with their inimitable water showers, sprayed from the mouths of the massive face displays. The playful, postmodern riff on the classic urban fountain has been celebrated for its interactivity and dualism theme. We also like it because a spitting fountain is just kinda hilariously literal and sorta juvenile, in the best possible way.

If you're heading in that general direction on Saturday, perhaps as part of a massive March for Science, be sure to sneak a peek.

[H/T Tribune]