The Centennial Olympic Park fountain design process began with EDAW obtaining approval from ACOG to utilize the Olympic five interconnecting ring symbol. Upon establishment of this design footprint, the Hobbs team was challenged to create a world class fountain to be used as an entertainment tool during the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta. The fountain would remain as a lasting legacy to the Centennial Games. EDAW and Hobbs analyzed several different configurations during the conceptual design phase. These early concepts included 24" diameter rings forming the five rings and a fountain basin formed by the outline of the five rings. The final design, utilizing the dry basin approach with a stainless steel grate forming the five rings, was chosen because of the aesthetic and operation concerns. The Centennial Plaza is designed to be a multi-purpose gathering place in the park. Taking on the role as system integrators, the Hobbs team consulted equipment suppliers and manufactures (not normally associated with fountains) to assemble a high tech. design that would provide the quality and back-up systems necessary to provide the durability required for a public park. Due to the importance of reliability, Hobbs designed a system that was user-friendly. It was Hobbs' theory that if the system was not user-friendly, maintenance would not be performed to make the fountain successful.

The final design was tested at Hobbs Atlanta facility utilizing their 40' x 40' outdoor test tank. The jet and valve combination was demonstrated for speed, repeatability and reliability to the project team. The Olympic rings were painted o n the parking lot to indicate the scale of the fountain for final approval.

Centennial Plaza (100 meters square) will feature the Olympic Ring Fountain. The aesthetics will consist of a "dry" basin approach with the fountain basin (reservoir) consisting of five interconnecting circular trenches below the pavement. The trenches will be 2' wide and 3' deep, and will contain all reservoir waters. The reservoir trenches will be covered by stainless steel grates. Each trench ring will be 25' feet centerline diameter, with each ring will contain 51 equally spaced jets. There will be a total of 251 jets. The static display features 51 jets per ring which are sprayed into the air, producing a three dimensional image of the five Olympic rings. The rear jet of each ring will operate at a vertical height of 12' with the jets around the circumference operating at progressively lower heights to the front jet operating at 4 feet high. The 251 jets are individually controlled by an infinite position pneumatic valve, which allows the creation of a variety of spray patterns by programming the height and timing of each jet with the use of a computerized show control system. Five 20 horsepower hydraulic pumps provide the water to the five rings.

The above jets are designed to provide an entertaining, programmed display to coordinate with music light shows. In addition to the programmed jets, a "mystical" fog effect will be emitting up from under the rings. The fog effect and programmed jets will be illuminated by 487 (300 W, 12v) colored, sequencing light fixtures. Each light fixture is individually controlled to work parallel with the programmed jet display. The light colors will be clear, amber, red and blue. Computerized show control shall be choreographed for 10 songs (selected by the owner), utilizing SMPTE time codes. SMPTE time codes will be sent from the digital audio system to the Show Control system.

The Water Basin Fountain will be located at the north end of Centennial Plaza. The fountain will consist of multilevel basins. Water will originate from 4 bubbler jet groups, two groups of five and two groups of thirteen. Each group will operate at 24" spray height. The waters from each bubbler group will create a 1" minimum flow over a weir and down a stepped cascade into the main basin, through a small pool which will absorb the turbulence energy from the cascades. By equalizing and absorbing the energy in the small pools, the main basin surface will remain calm and reflective. A four foot wide trough surrounds three sides of the reflecting pool. The ends of the trough will feature a four foot high vertical wall with water introduced at the top to ripple down the water carved granite surface. These waters will ripple down the textured surface of the shallow troughs and collect in a central reservoir in front of the reflecting pool. A total of five scuppers will flow water from the front of the main basin into the four foot wide trough. shutdown gain will partially fill the trough when the respective pumping systems are de-energized.

Night illumination is provided by thirty-two 500 watt freestanding lights, located in the center of the bubbler jet clusters. Twenty-two 250 watt niche lights are located around the perimeter of the main basin to illuminate the stone bottom of the basin. The surrounding troughs are not illuminated.

The fountain mechanical and electric equipment is contained in two fiberglass modular underground pumping stations. Each pumping station will contain two pumps, 30 horsepower display pump and 2 horsepower filtration pump system.

The Fountain of Rings is the world's only fountain utilizing the Olympic Symbol of five interconnecting rings.

Each of the five Olympic rings are 25 feet in diameter.

The entire fountain, from outside ring edge to outside ring edge, is 82.5 feet in length.

The fountain was designed by two local firms, the landscape architectural firm of EDAW, Inc. and fountain consultants Wm. Hobbs, Ltd. Architectural Fountains. Both firms have collaborated on other successful projects such as the recently Georgia Tech. Plaza in the heart of Olympic Village, Tennessee Aquarium, and Washington Harbor, Wash. D.C.

Total price, including design, construction, technology and music rights, is $2.5 million.

There are 251 water jets, 400 fog jets, and 487 clear, amber and red lights.

When illuminated at night, the total wattage of lighting is 116,880 watts.

Designed as a "dry fountain" the fountain does not have a visible basin of water. All fountain waters are contained in a reservoir below the stainless steel grate which makes up the Olympic symbol.

The show must go on! Redundant and backup systems have been designed into the fountain system. The five 20 horsepower hydraulic display pumping system, for instance, was designed to maintain the fountain show in the event of malfunction of one or more pumps.

Approximately 4,300 gallons of water per minute can be sprayed into the air during a fountain show. These waters return to the fountain reservoir to be recycled through the system.

Water height during normal fountain operation is 4 to 12 feet. During special effects spray heights can reach 35 feet. The computer synchronized fountain can be programmed in a variety of water displays including low-pressure, walk-through "water curtain" and can create Olympic Rings that hover momentarily above the Centennial Plaza. A cooling Fog can be created for special lighting effects.

During high winds the wind compensation system reduces the spray height to prevent water from drifting across the plaza.

A vault, 17 feet beneath the fountain, measured 102.6 by 37 feet and houses three rooms; the fountain mechanical room, the electrical control room and the computer control room for all audio and visual choreography system. The start-up, maintenance and shut down systems will be operated and maintained by remote control inside of the adjacent Georgia World Congress Center. The Fountain equipment room has more than 25 miles of control wire to operate the fountain jets, lights and pumping systems.

Wm. Hobbs, Ltd. will use two computers to choreograph the fountain jets, lights and music for the Olympic Games. The show control computer utilized to operate the fountain is a 1500 channel lighting control board. Control boards of this type and size are rarely used except in Broadway shows. The Audio system is a sophisticated system of computer software, processors and connections on a circuit board. The system converts music to digital audio data, stores it on a computer hard drive, then provides dynamic access to it for remote playback while sending time code information to the show control computer to synchronize the fountain jets and lights to the music. Systems of this type are usually found in radio stations.

The fountain equipment room has more than 25 miles of control wire to operate the fountain jets, lights and pumping systems. Electricians spent 6,000 man hours just to connect the miles of control wire used in the fountain.

William Hobbs, Ltd. will provide five songs with timed sequential light and water displays prior to the Games: Fresh Air Toccata by Mannheim Steamroller; Summons of the Hero by John Williams; 1812 Overture Finale by Tchaikovsky as performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; Chariots of Fire by Vangelis; and Santorini, Yanni, Live at the Acropolis. At least five other musical compositions will be chosen for special events and seasons after the Games.

Festival seating is provided for viewing the fountain on 3 sides. The Georgia granite terraces match the bands of granite engraved with the Olympic Quilt pattern used throughout the park surrounding the Olympic Bricks which helped pay for the park.

Another fountain is located directly North of International Boulevard. The Atlanta skyline will be reflected in the calm waters of this multi-level reflecting pool. This fountain measures approximately 60' by 150' long.