Palisades Allegory: The Eye of the Beholder
Interview with William Weiss, III, ASLA, Greenland Associates, L.L.C.

By Leslie McGuire, managing editor

As Greg Nagin, the water shaper, recalls, “One day a lady in her 60s came by to tell us it was the worst thing she had ever seen, ‘What is it?’ she said. I explained it was to be a water wall and how it would light up at night, and how water would flow down both sides. She said it made no sense. So I told her, ‘It’s art, like Picasso.’”

Across the Hudson from the Upper West Side of NYC is an unusual fountain sculpture set in the entrance plaza of a high-rise, 70s-style apartment building. This water-wall fountain, designed by William Weiss III, Licensed Landscape Architect and Owner/Partner of Greenland Associates, LLC, is an allegory to Palisades Park – and is on the site of that former, iconic amusement park.

”A pipe concealed under the copper top flows the water through several thousand little tubes that drip the water down the glass block wall. The water remains laminar all the way down.”
Photos courtesy of Greenland Associates, L.L.C.

A whimsy among co-ops and condo’s – the fountain is planted in front of Cliffside Park’s oldest residential tower, consisting of two large apartment buildings that are mirror images of each other,” explains Weiss. “Originally graced with a conventional fountain sitting in the entrance area, the paving was cracked and crumbling, and the whole plaza needed a facelift. However, the biggest design constraint for the new fountain was the extremely high wind loading which threw people against walls or knocked them down. The old oblong island fountain blew water all over, and the board said, ‘Come up with something unique and knock us out with it...’”

“The paving was designed to grab people as they drive in. Hanover was used for the curb and Hastings hexagonal and trapezoidal pavers for the plaza area. The diagonal pattern was derived from a geometry different from the columnar design of the building behind it so as not to be at right angles.”

So that is exactly what Weiss did.

“The shape and the form were derived as a response to the Euclidean geometry of the entry. But it was also meant to be part of the sky and the DNA of a suburban architectural world that was absent of all DNA,” explains Weiss.

“The Board wanted it to look like a higher class building, one which already boasted spectacular views of the George Washington Bridge, the Hudson River and downtown Manhattan. They wanted added ‘Wow’ factor and curb appeal.”

“Since the original paving was very shabby, I also specified a jazzed paving pattern for the plaza and the curb. The entrance is highly trafficked, reminiscent of the busy entryway of a hotel because there are 1200 residents living in the 700 apartments.”

Greg Nagin is the artisan who constructed the wall to Weiss’s design, and he was there on a daily basis getting comments—several of them nasty—as the work progressed. Says Weiss, “We collaborated extensively as things changed during construction. Nagin is one of the best artists in the water shaping field today, as I see it, and he also has a great and wry sense of humor.…”

Designed to replicate Palisades Amusement Park, I told the Board the piece would have whimsy and that it was necessary to do something like this to jazz up the entryway. They said ‘When can you get it done?’ Then, if course, it was the usual ‘Hurry up and wait.’ Ultimately it took eight months to build because of the bad weather.”

“The wall sits on an island and the water recirculates into a linear wavy pond that measures from five to eight feet wide and 75 feet long and mirrors the curves of the wall. The pond is poured concrete with a poured concrete footing and the whole thing sits on the parking garage. Weight was always an issue. However there was a civil engineer on board. A structure test was done and it was determined that the fountain is set across a column line. It had a nearly unlimited support capacity and didn’t even come close to becoming an issue, weight-wise.”

“While we were building the wave wall we had many people come by and talk to us,” Greg Nagin recalls. “The comments were as varied as the people who gave them. I don’t know why, but the nastiest one sticks the most. One old lady would come by daily with a frown, sometimes with her friends and tell us how horrible it was and that we were garbage. ‘It’s garbage and you’re nothing’ she would say. Out of respect for her and her age we wouldn’t say anything, just try to be nice.”

“But on another day a young attractive lady with a French accent came by and said, ‘When is the masterpiece going to be done? I can’t wait to see it completed and stand and gaze at it.’ Then a nicely dressed man in his 60’s came out on our lunch break, put his hands on his hips, looked up and let his eyes roll over it, smiled and told us ‘Bold, very bold!’ We also had elderly twins that visited us for a moment almost daily to encourage us and tell us what a wonderful job we were doing. ’It looks great, Boys.’”

Says Weiss, “I didn’t want to scare the horses, or upset small children and dogs, but apparently the water wall did, which complicated things, especially for Greg Nagin who was out there working in the most brutal weather.”

“Designed to withstand 80 to 120 mile-an-hour winds, not only does the wall still stand, the water remains laminar all the way down regardless of the wind load, with no wet pavement or water loss. That was part of the requirement. The top is copper sheeting, riveted and welded or brazed together. It was hammered, formed and cut, then fabricated to that shape. We laid out the final cutting with a magic marker.”

“Although no one actually told me I was garbage,” he continues, “that would have been alright. Then I would have known I’d touched a nerve, which is, after all, the point of art. All I wanted to do was bring an organic structure to an inorganic space. It was an amoeba in a site that was a cold hard mineral…

“And besides, art always gives people a way of knowing they’re alive.”