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player ready...To millions of tourists and city dwellers alike, Buckingham Fountain still resembles a frilly layered cake on the outside. But after 66 Chicago winters, its innards look more like something left in the fridge well beyond the spoiling point.
So, after missing hardly a summer splash since 1927, the Grant Park landmark will be shut down Monday night, a week earlier than expected, for a $2.8 million renovation, officials said Saturday.
After Monday evening’s regular light and water show, the fountain will be turned off for the season, said Brian Williquette, a park operations supervisor with the Chicago Park District.
“We’re cleaning it on Tuesday and start construction on Wednesday,” Williquette said.
The fountain had been scheduled to shut down July 18, but the date was moved up so construction could be finished before winter, Williquette said.
The years have weathered the landmark. Its sculpted pink Georgia marble exterior is now more of a rusty brown. And the constant spewing and gushing of water into the fountain’s pools have cracked and softened its massive concrete core.
By May 1, 1995, it is expected to be back, its refurbished marble skin pinned back on a stronger and less permeable concrete frame.
Park District workers will equip the fountain with new plumbing, and it will have new, more powerful lights to compensate for the increasing light cast by the rest of the city over the years.
What’s more, the work won’t cost taxpayers a cent. The fountain, which originally cost $700,000, was a gift to the city from Kate Buckingham, an heiress to a multimillion-dollar fortune. Buckingham established an endowment to pay for its continued maintenance.
She probably would have relished the technical aspects of the current restoration; she had an eye for such details.
As the fountain neared completion in the summer of 1927, the 69-year-old Buckingham was at the construction site every night, tinkering with the colored glass lenses projecting onto the water geysers.
At the time, she was quoted as saying she wanted to achieve a “soft moonlight” effect by blending colors that would create an “ethereal, mystical aura.”