City by the Edge of the Lake

A Collaborative Project between Kidist Getachew and Michael Lehto

This project uses interior and exterior components to create a dialogue about the importance of water by focusing on the visual and auditory components of a waterfall, thereby drawing a connection for the audience between the environment of the bridge and the austere power of water.

On the interior, the piece will be located at the center of the bridge, directly over the river, spanning ~200 feet. The audience will experience a “sheet” of water that will fall from the ceiling of the lower level down to the deck. Ceiling-mounted lights will illuminate the water. The audience will also hear ambient sounds which will be piped in via microphone from another part of the bridge. The water that falls from the ceiling will be recollected on the deck and fall into a reservoir where it will be pumped back into the system.

As an additional concept, translucent screens will be mounted from deck to ceiling at random intervals on either side of the falling water. These screens will serve to catch reflections of the water from the cast light, as well as to provide a surface to display projected videos. These videos will depict intimate scenes of people around the globe using water. It should be noted that this additional concept would be impactful mostly during the evening hours of the festival.

The exterior of the bridge will be used as part of the piece primarily at night. Here, the water theme from the interior will be extended to the exterior by pointing high-power blue spotlights straight down from the bridge into the river. The lights will be mounted face-down on the deck of the interior space. From any location in the city where the bridge is visible, the effect will be that of a blue-neon waterfall of light.

Conceptual Sketches - Base Concept (Interior and Exterior)

These images represent the base concept in the interior and exterior space, day and night (click any image for a larger view)

Interior Diagram Sketch

This image depicts the flow of water within the closed-loop system that generates the interior waterfall. Two pumps, operating independently, are attached to their own reservoir (approximately 300 gallons per reservoir). The pumps send the water into the distribution pipes, the horizontal portion of which are punctured many times along the 200 foot length create the "waterfall" effect. The water that falls from each pipe is collected on the deck and sent back to the reservoirs. (Note that since the bridge is curved evenly on either side, simply gravity will allow for the water to flow back with fairly even distribution into each reservoir). (click image for larger view)

Conceptual Sketchs - Extended Concept (Interior)

Conceptual Sketch for Extended EXTERIOR Waterfall Concept

PLEASE NOTE: the waterfall depicted here is unlikely to be realizable with a single pump. Adding additional capacity with additional pumps will increase the overall flow.

Budget

We've included an itemized budget estimate hear with the hope that some of these items can be found through Ingenuity's network for use temporarily through the festival (items such as lighting, rubber hose, etc.).

Base Concept
Item	Qty	Est. Cost
Pumps	2	$4000
1.5" Rubber Hose	250 ft	$415
Trough Collection System	200 ft	$1000
Reservoirs (300 gal)	2	$200
Interior Lights (100-200 watt)	40	$1500
Exterior Spots (700-1500 watt)	10	$500
Speakers	10	$500
Total:		$8,115

Extended Concept (Interior)
Item	Qty	Est. Cost
Transparent Screens	30	$800
Projectors	4	$1200
Total Additional Cost:		$2,000
Extended Concept (Exterior)
Item	Qty	Est. Cost
275 GPM Pump Rental, incl. transport	1	$3000*
6" PVC piping, fasteners, and associated hardware	300ft.	$1000*
Diesel Fuel	+	$2000*+
Engineering Consultant	1	$1000
Total Additional Cost:		$7,000
* Double estimates for all items marked with (*) if a second pump is added.
+ Assumes running approx. 12 hours per day over length of festival