The new Smale Riverfront Park is a 45-acre civic park running along the bank of the Ohio River and framed by city landmarks in downtown Cincinnati. This previously underutilized space was made possible by partnerships with private and public funding and is on its way to becoming an important destination landmark that provides a recreational, entertainment and economic resource.
Cincinnati Parks announced the Phase I opening in Spring 2012 and construction is now underway doubling the size of the park in 2013. Since opening, this two-level park designed by Sasaki Associates, has provided residents and visitors a performance stage, event lawn, sculpture play area, a 1000-foot-long riverfront promenade, bike center and interactive water features.
Working with Aquatic Design and Engineering (AD&E), and Hydro Dramatics who supplied water feature products, fabrication and programming, Crystal, a world leading water feature manufacturer, provided additional water feature products as well as custom LED lighting for the two main water features (link to video):
**Main Street Fountain**
The Main Street fountain is a dry plaza interactive water feature that encourages the public in to play. Crystal supplied over 40 of the popular ChoreoSwitch® jets for the dry deck interactive fountain. These jets are an all-in-one interactive fountain device containing both LED lighting and sequencing components.
**Grand Stairway**
Linking the upper and lower park, the Grand Stairway consists of a dramatic staircase flanked by water cascades and a series of water curtains that fall from glass balconies above. Carved alongside the stairs are bike runnels, allowing cyclists to easily navigate the stairs and in recognition of the full-service bike commuting facility contained within the park.
At night, the stairway and water curtains are awash in millions of colors, lit by a variety of Crystal’s LED lighting, many with custom mounting and stainless steel finishes.
**Sustainable Strategies**
The park vision includes a number of sustainable elements:
• Full service bicycle commuting center encouraging reduced use of cars
• New restaurant, bike center and the public toilets use geothermal heating and cooling systems
• Event lawn is a green roof with trees that cover the rood of the garage structure below
• Solar panels on the stage, bike center and garage help provide electricity to the park
*About Crystal (www.crystalfountains.com)
Crystal is a globally recognized international water feature specialist since 1967. With offices and partners throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions. Crystal’s premium water & light products and services are used throughout the world to transform water feature visions into reality.*
