Although the Garden has offered water features during most of its 139-year history, its current love affair with fountains traces back to 1974 with the installation of the Shapleigh Fountain. Designed by the architectural firm Mackey & Associates and Hydro Dramatics fountain engineers, the Shapleigh offers a circular array of pulsing, upward sprays that shoot up gradually to a height of eight feet.

The Shapleigh's pumps and pipes are located underneath ornamental grates that are level with the ground. People can pass through the fountain, wet or dry, and sit in the exact center-- enveloped by the sound of whooshing water and surrounded by the circle of sprays. The fountain's interactive design--which inspired the Garden's desire for more water displays--beckons water lovers to participate in a "total" fountain experience.

"From the beginning, children and adventurous adults loved to beat the St. Louis heat and humidity by running through this fountain," comments Kerry Friedman, Vice President of Missouri Machinery and Engineering. Friedman, who has been a project leader at Missouri Botanical Garden for the past twenty years, explains that the Shapleigh set the tone for many fountains at the Garden and remains a popular favorite today.

With the emphasis on water features in succeeding years at the Garden, a collaborative effort between EPD and the fountain engineers has lasted more than two decades. As Landscape Architects and planners who have served more than 60 botanical gardens in the last 35 years, EPD develops creative concepts for the appearance and landscape effects of the fountains.

The Missouri Botanical Garden, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971, includes an assortment of individual gardens representing many diverse ecosystems. During the winter season, the Japanese Garden becomes a cascading "winter wonderland," quiet and spectacular to behold.

The English woodlands and the Japanese and Chinese gardens are popular segments, as are the Climatron®, the world's first geodesic-domed greenhouse, and the William T. Kemper Center for Gardens.

Designing, implementing and maintaining the most effective water features for the various sites within the Garden has been a complex task. One of the more challenging projects was the "jumping jet" (dubbed "Leaping Frog") fountain, installed within the Ruth Palmer Blanke Boxwood Garden in 1996. Leaping Frog sends silvery, well-defined ropes of water hurtling ten feet over walkways in pulses. The ropes create a liquid archway, half an arc at a time, in a crisscross pattern.

"Our aim in creating the Leaping Frog attraction was to take a somewhat staid garden and add a contemporary element that would make it more fun," remarks Geoffrey Rausch, partner with EPD.

Dan Heinlein, design manager for the fountain, explains that the concept was difficult to create. He elaborates, "This fountain required more engineering than any other fountain we've designed. It was technically very challenging due to the laminar flow jets that need to be set at certain arc degrees for optimum water flow. After all the calculations and drawings, the jets still had to be empirically set by observation."

The Kemper Center gardens are also home to a series of animal-themed mini-fountains. Each fountain is topped with bronze sculptures such as peacocks, geese, ducks and a raccoon trying to catch a fish. The handsome bronzes are the work of St. Louis artist Robert Lee Walker. The challenge here was to integrate the sculptures into the water, adding to their visual appeal. Thus, the peacock's tail spurts a jet of water, and the raccoon's quarry floats on a pool of water.

To Friedman, developing the huge and dramatic Latzer Fountain, which greets visitors when they first enter the Garden area through the Ridgway Center, was the most difficult project. As Rausch explains, "The challenge was to create a spectacular fountain that would still look pretty when it was turned off in the winter." In addition, the engineers were challenged to design the fountain so that high winds and breezes would not cause passersby to get soaked.

"It was certainly tricky coming up with a design in which all elements were underground, including the plumbing and pipes, but we were able to do it," states Friedman. "When you turn it off, the basin area actually looks like a seating area, with no evidence of a fountain."

"In addition, " Friedman continues, "we installed special wind sensors to shut down the fountain's ring feed pipe when the wind blows at ten miles per hour. At that point, a large geyser erupts from the center, maintaining a fountain effect without drenching nearby visitors."

"The practice of building and maintaining architectural and intricate fountains requires a tremendous amount of work. A client must be truly committed to the idea," comments Rausch, who feels that Peter Raven, the director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, shows such commitment. "By combining landscape plantings with fountains, waterfalls, sculptures and so on, Raven believed the Garden could be its most attractive, fun and educational, and ultimately teach people to love plants and appreciate the environment. He also knew that the more enjoyable the Garden became, the more regular visitors and committed supporters it would have."

The number of people who visit the 79-acre Missouri Botanical Garden has more than quadrupled since the 1970s. With its growing public support and acclaim, the Garden has completed the Monsanto Center that is a showcase for sustainable construction techniques, popularly known as "green architecture."

The center will preserve the Garden's priceless collection of five million herbarium specimens and serve as headquarters for many internationally-significant environmental research programs. Companies, organizations and nations worldwide will be able to obtain plant specimens for free from Missouri Botanical Garden for research purposes. lasn