Salmon Run | Part 2

When I built the fountain I was there all the time. It took 2 years to build it. Very complicated. And the fish themselves are cut with a technique called water jet cutting. Water jet cutting is high-powered water with silica in it, which is like a fine, fine grain to cut through material. And in 1989 it was sort of a new technique in order to cut through metal so that you weren’t getting all the flame-cut edges that make it much rougher. So these fish were cut actually with a fabricator and brought here. And they are silicone-bronze, which means that they are much better in resistance to water than normal bronze.

When I designed the fountain to accommodate the water – and the water should be about 4,000 gallons a minute pouring over that wall – it was designed specifically to be as close to natural as I could get within the parameters of working with granite and sandblasting it. So my intent was to have the water flow between the set of cracks of the upper wall. All the piping system is in that upper wall. So it is a circulatory pump that the water is pumped out and it drains through and circles around and around and around, that’s how it’s designed. And it’s meant to be turgid in the front of the fountain. Meaning it’s meant to be very active, very volatile, which is part of the fight of climbing upstream to spawn. And it’s meant to be the opposite on the other side, which you have to view it by climbing the steps. It’s very quiet on the other side.

Want to hear more? Check out Part 2.

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